Time is often taken for granted as a uniform, linear backdrop against which events unfold. In classical physics, time is a universal parameter ticking independently of the world’s contents. Even in relativity, time becomes relative but remains a dimension intertwined with space.
Quantum physics challenges these notions further, with phenomena that suggest time may not be fundamental. But what if time itself is not a fixed dimension or a parameter — but an emergent feature of relational dynamics?
1. Time in Classical and Modern Physics
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In Newtonian mechanics, time flows uniformly, absolute and independent.
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Einstein’s relativity showed time is relative and connected with space into spacetime.
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Quantum theory often treats time as an external parameter, not an operator like other observables.
Yet, neither framework fully explains why time flows, or how temporal order arises.
2. Time as a Parameter versus Time as Process
Standard quantum theory’s external time parameter is problematic:
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It presumes a background temporal ordering,
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It cannot capture the emergence of temporality within the system itself,
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It leaves the “arrow of time” and irreversibility unexplained.
3. Time as Emergent from Relational Construal
In a relational ontology:
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Time is not fundamental but arises from the sequence of relational actualisations,
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The “flow” of time reflects the ongoing punctuations of potential into actuality,
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Temporal order is a partial ordering of these construal events — a processual cline, not a fixed axis.
Time emerges as the system actualises constraints and reorganises coherence, producing a temporal topology rather than a metric dimension.
4. Implications for Quantum Phenomena
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The “before” and “after” of measurement, tunnelling, and entanglement are features of temporal patterning within relational actualisation,
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Quantum indeterminacy reflects the openness of potential prior to construal,
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The seeming paradoxes of causality and simultaneity dissolve when time is seen as process, not a container.
5. Toward a Processual Ontology of Time
This view invites us to rethink physics:
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Instead of searching for time’s “fundamental nature” as a thing, we see it as a feature of the relational web’s unfolding,
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Temporal directionality is grounded in the asymmetry of constraints and the history of actualisation,
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The fixed timeline is replaced by a dynamically generated temporal topology reflective of systemic history and potential.
Closing
Time, then, is not an external parameter or dimension to be measured independently. It is the emergent ordering of relational events — a narrative written in the ongoing construal of potential.
In the next post, we will explore how space itself emerges alongside time within this relational framework, reshaping our understanding of locality and extension.
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