The natural next question is: what, then, of space and time themselves? Do they dissolve, distort, or vanish for an observer inside the horizon? Or are they construed in ways continuous with those outside?
The Outside Perspective: Theoretical Construal
From outside an event horizon, space and time beyond it are not phenomena. They cannot be actualised in perspective. What can be offered are second-order construals: mathematical projections, theoretical models, symbolic extrapolations. General relativity, for example, predicts time dilation, trajectories toward singularity, and other dynamics. But these are not lived phenomena; they are symbolic construals imagined from beyond the cut.
Thus, for the outside perspective, “space and time inside the horizon” are never phenomena. They exist only as theorised possibility, always inconstruable as experience.
The Inside Perspective: Phenomenal Continuity
From inside the horizon, the situation is different. Space and time are still fully construed as phenomena. They remain the structuring dimensions of experience, as they do outside. Nothing in the act of crossing the horizon obliterates phenomenal construal.
Yet this continuity is horizon-conditioned:
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Space is construed relationally — near/far, here/there, path/distance. But it is enclosed. The horizon marks the absolute limit: there is no “outside” in the phenomenal domain. The geometry of construal persists, but the map ends at the boundary.
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Time is construed sequentially — before/after, unfolding events, trajectories. But it is oriented toward the horizon as an ultimate limit. Physics describes this as an inexorable falling inward, but from a relational standpoint, what matters is that time continues to be lived and construed, even if bounded in scope.
For inside perspectives, then, space and time remain ordinary phenomena. They are not alien or different in kind from those construed outside. They are simply bounded within a sealed domain.
The Asymmetry of Construal
The crucial distinction is perspectival:
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Outside looking in: space and time beyond the horizon are inconstruable as phenomena, available only as symbolic imagination.
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Inside living it: space and time are construable as phenomena, fully actualised in experience, but horizon-bounded and non-alignable with outside construals.
Thus, the asymmetry lies not in the nature of space and time themselves, but in the structure of construal.
Ontological Payoff
This has important consequences. It suggests that event horizons should not be treated as universal “tearing points” of spacetime. The difference is not between space and time existing or not existing, but between perspectives differently positioned relative to the cut of construal.
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For the outside: space and time “inside” are theoretical, symbolic projections.
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For the inside: space and time remain phenomenal realities, but sealed against reflexive alignment with outside perspectives.
Horizons, then, do not dissolve meaning. They partition the reach of construal, enclosing domains of space and time without annihilating them.
Closing Thought
From the standpoint of relational ontology, the event horizon becomes less a rupture in the fabric of spacetime, and more a perspectival structuring of possibility. Space and time do not vanish there. They continue to be lived, but lived within the sealed enclosure of the horizon — phenomena that remain actual, but only for those inside.
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