1. Shifting the Experimental Focus
Most experiments in physics are designed around the assumptions of entity-based metaphysics:
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Particles travel along trajectories.
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Fields exist on a spacetime backdrop.
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Measurements reveal pre-existing values.
A relational approach invites new experimental logics:
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Focus on transitions between configurations, rather than object movement.
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Observe systemic reconfigurations under constraint.
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Treat measurements as interventions within a relational field, not windows into a hidden substance.
2. Reinterpreting Existing Experiments
Some current experiments already hint at relational processes, even if not framed that way:
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Quantum tunnelling experiments, like Sharoglazova et al. (2025), can be reinterpreted as tracking rates of relational reconfiguration under constraint, rather than particle penetration.
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Entanglement and Bell tests challenge locality and substance metaphysics, but fit naturally within a non-separable relational field view.
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Weak measurement protocols reveal intermediate coherence structures, not sharp trajectories — again aligning with a relational interpretation.
3. Designing New Experiments
To directly engage relational ontology, we might:
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Develop dynamical constraints (e.g., time-varying barriers or coupled fields) that modulate potential actualisation pathways, and track coherence redistribution across configurations.
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Exploit multi-scale coherence: systems where micro-level entanglements or correlations manifest as macro-level transitions (e.g. collective behaviour, phase transitions in constrained quantum systems).
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Test non-trivial contextual dependencies: arrangements where the presence or absence of seemingly distant constraints affect what outcomes actualise locally — not via signal transmission, but via relational coherence.
4. Experimental Signatures of Relational Reality
What would count as evidence for relational ontology?
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Nonlocal coherence without classical causation, especially in cases not fully predicted by standard quantum mechanics.
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Context-sensitive outcome structures: experimental results that shift depending not just on local parameters but on relational affordances within the whole setup.
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Failure of particle-based interpretations: when attempts to map observed behaviour onto discrete trajectories or object histories generate contradictions.
Closing
Relational ontology reshapes not just how we interpret data, but how we ask questions and build experiments. It redirects empirical attention from substances to dynamical coherence, from trajectories to transitions, and from measurement as discovery to measurement as modulation.
In the next post, we will step back to consider the philosophical legacy of substance metaphysics, and why overcoming it may be necessary for progress in fundamental physics.
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