How Structure Emerges from Constraint
The companion work Being from Nothingness (BFN) establishes that the impossibility of absolute nothingness necessitates a specific relational structure: five constraints (boundary, pattern, resource, integration, ordering) encoded in a Clifford algebra Cl(5). This document develops the consequences of that structure, tracing the path from constraint to manifestation.
The central result concerns the monogamy constraint on distinguishability: the total relational magnitude through any feature is bounded. From this constraint, we derive:
Scaling exponents. Pairwise constraints (β, κ, ρ, λ) scale as γ = 1 with participation scope N; cyclic constraints (τ) scale as γ = k for k-cycles. This differential scaling is not assumed but derived from the algebraic structure.
The N=2/N≥3 boundary. Ordering (τ) is necessarily zero with only two relata; it emerges at N≥3 as trivector structure becomes available. This threshold marks the ontological origin of directionality.
Two regimes. Small participation scope yields coherent structure (indivisible, strongly ordered); large participation scope yields statistical structure (averaged, ordering negligible). The transition is continuous.
Structural features with physical correspondences. The framework predicts a fundamental propagation limit equal to 1 in natural units, a mixed signature with τ distinguished, and a specific coupling topology(τ isolated, λ as hub). These correspond suggestively to the speed of light, Lorentzian spacetime, and force hierarchy — though establishing these as identities rather than analogies remains open.
Universal pattern classes. Persistent patterns fall into three classes (World-Modelers, World-Explorers, World-Creators) distinguished by their dominant constraint strategy. Knockout experiments confirm that all five constraints are necessary for persistence.
Perspective as structural. Every locus in the relational field has a participation scope defining its perspective. Pattern is trans-perspectival coherence — structure that persists across partial participations.
The framework is a structural derivation program: from the requirement that something be distinguishable from nothing, derive the character of what must exist. The bridge claims connecting framework structures to physical phenomena represent the key interface with empirical physics and the primary territory for further development.