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How
Energy Becomes Real A modern druid’s Universal Theory of Thingness Abstract: This essay
outlines a Universal Theory of Thingness—an ontological and physical proposal
describing how waves of pre-experiential energy, traveling at the speed of
light, become real, experiential, cognizable things. Grounded in the logic of
mass-energy equivalence, the essay rejects the assumption that particles are
pre-existing entities and instead argues that “thingness” arises when
wave-events are confined, redirected, or disrupted—what is termed a strike.
From this, mass and matter emerge not as substance, but as consequence. The
real becomes real not by being revealed, but by being made—through contact,
confinement, and patterned constraint. This is not a theory of what is, but
of how the real becomes. 1. First
Principle: Thingness Is Not Given—It Emerges This
theory does not begin with matter, nor with particles, nor with fields. It
begins with waves—specifically, wave-events of energy traveling at the
speed of light (@c). These waves are not things. They do not occupy time or
space from their own frame of reference. They are pre-experiential, non-local,
and unfelt. Yet,
under certain conditions—when they meet resistance, when they are disrupted,
when they are confined—these waves give rise to something radically
different: a particle, or more precisely, a quantum of mass. At
that moment, energy is not just flowing. It becomes held, localized,
registered. It becomes, in a single word: real. What we
call a thing is not the persistence of stuff, but the consequence
of contact. It is a moment when energy folds into form. This is the birth
of thingness—and it happens not always, but only when certain
conditions are met. 2. Strike
= Contact = Realness When two
wave events intersect in a relativity vacuum—a condition where time and space
collapse relative to their motion—they enter contact. This contact, or strike,
is not a physical collision in space-time; it is the birth of locality
itself. It is an ontological event, a moment where relational motion is
reconfigured into presence. This is when the wave becomes mass: a
discrete quantum of realness. The
strike marks the transition from flow to form, from linearity to confinement. 3. The
Transformation ·
A wave happens as a quantum of energy. ·
A particle happens as a quantum of mass. ·
Matter happens when mass is confined, defined,
and identified. This
sequence defines the transformation process: 1. Energy
moves as linear action. 2. Upon
impact, this linearity is broken. 3. The wave
folds back, resonates, or loops. 4. This
non-linearity is experienced as mass. Mass is not
inherent in energy—it emerges through confinement. The resulting particle is
not an object uncovered by measurement, but an act of transformation made
tangible. 4.
Confinement = Experience Realness
arises through resistance. When energy flow is constrained—when it meets a
boundary, a symmetry, or another wave—it becomes locally meaningful. This
process of confinement does not merely expose existing properties; it generates
experience. To exist
is to be held. To be held is to be felt. Thus, experience is
the echo of confinement. 5.
Rule-Layered Reality: Matter from Recurrence Matter is
not simply persistent mass. It is mass stabilized through repetition and
rule. These rules—like those of a Turing machine or a symbolic weaving
loom—encode patterns into the universe: ·
They define how energy may recur. ·
They constrain how mass behaves. ·
They select which configurations of
particle-behaviour endure. Matter,
then, is recurrence-enfolded mass: a codified outcome of earlier
strikes, governed by arbitrary but consistent constraints. Structure becomes
substance. Law becomes identity. 6.
Everything Emerges; Nothing Is Given This
Universal Theory of Thingness is not built on particles or fields as primary
entities. It is built on transformation and constraint: ·
Energy flows. ·
Contact confines. ·
Mass emerges. ·
Matter is repeated mass, rule-bound. ·
Experience is the echo of emergence. Nothing
pre-exists the act of becoming. All that we perceive as stable, objective, or
material is the after-effect of strike. What
identity (and thus form or function) the moment of thingness takes—whether as
atomic matter, biological organism, or symbolic object—is a secondary matter.
The real point is that all thingness begins with contact. Conclusion:
The Real Is What Touches This
cosmology requires no fixed substrate—no enduring things. It requires only
wave-events, the condition of contact, and the constraints that shape
recurrence. Realness is not discovered. It is made. To exist
is to touch. To touch is to become real. Author’s
Note This work
does not claim the rigor of formal physics, but it does seek the clarity of
conceptual truth. Born from a tension in Einstein’s insights, and guided by
intuitive reasoning rather than mathematics, this speculative theory proposes
that the transformation of energy into mass through confinement is the origin
of the real. It is the
work of a modern druid, not a physicist. It is not a final answer, but a deep
pattern—a way of seeing. If it is true in form, the details may one day
follow. A Druid’s
reframing of the Theravāda Interpretation of
Dependent Arising |