Some modern physical theories assert that the universe is fundamentally mathematics or information. This is an ontological overextension: a reduction of the richness of reality to a single mode of abstraction.
This is the distortion: complex relational actualisation is collapsed into symbolic or numerical form, and then treated as if that form were all there is.
The Physics Move
The “mathematical universe hypothesis” (Tegmark) treats equations as not merely descriptive but constitutive of reality.
Information-theoretic physics sometimes claims that everything, including matter and energy, reduces to bits.
Computational or algorithmic models of reality are presented as complete ontologies, where relational nuance is flattened to code or formal patterns.
Why This Overextends Ontology
Reduction evacuates relational actualisation:
It replaces how things interact with how they can be represented.
It turns descriptors (mathematical form, information content) into the thing itself, obscuring the ongoing process of becoming.
The richness, contingency, and perspectival nature of actuality is lost under formal completeness.
The distortion lies in substituting representation for relation: the map is claimed as territory.
The Relational Reframing
From a relational standpoint:
Mathematics and computation are tools for expressing relational patterns, not ontic constituents.
Matter, energy, and events actualise relational possibilities; formal systems describe these patterns but do not replace them.
Recognising reduction as a symbolic simplification preserves the primacy of relational actualisation over formal elegance.
Thus, reduction is intelligible — but only as a lens on relational dynamics, not as an ontological foundation.
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