Spacetime is often treated as the arena in which physics happens: a backdrop, a container, a stage for matter and energy. Yet relationally, spacetime is not an independent substance; it is a configuration of relational events and constraints. Treating it as a container is a classic distortion: reifying relational structure into ontological “stuff.”
The Physics Move
General relativity describes spacetime curvature as though it “acts” on matter, and matter “acts” on spacetime. Texts often anthropomorphize it as a dynamic fabric that bends, stretches, and ripples.
Quantum gravity and string theory further describe spacetime as something to be quantized, triangulated, or compactified — implicitly treating it as an entity subject to manipulation.
Even popular science narratives describe “warped spacetime” like a trampoline, suggesting a physicality that belies its relational origin.
Why This Distorts Ontology
Spacetime is a relational construct, encoding the alignment of events, the actualisation of possible relations, and the structure of interactions. Treating it as a “thing” or a “fabric” obscures its fundamental character: it exists because relations occur, not the other way around.
The distortion lies in substance substitution: we imagine spacetime as an entity, rather than understanding it as the relational scaffold of actuality.
The Relational Reframing
From a relational standpoint:
Distances, durations, and curvature are emergent from the alignment of events, not features of a container.
Matter and fields do not sit inside spacetime; they co-actualise its structure through their interactions.
The “fabric” metaphor is convenient for calculation and intuition, but it must not masquerade as ontology.
Thus, spacetime is intelligible — but only as a pattern of relations, not as an independent stage or substance.
This completes the Substance Reifications triad: matter, energy, and spacetime — all are relational descriptors often miscast as ontological entities.
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