Ontological Evasions in Physics, Part 13 Wavefunction Realism: Reifying the Abstract

Quantum mechanics presents a formalism whose central object, the wavefunction, exists mathematically in high-dimensional Hilbert space rather than in observable spacetime. Some interpretations treat the wavefunction as real, giving it ontological status. While this move preserves formal coherence, it is a classic ontological evasion: it elevates a mathematical abstraction into reality without explaining how relational actualisation occurs in the three-dimensional world we inhabit.

The evasive manoeuvre

By asserting the wavefunction as ontologically real, physics sidesteps the question of how its high-dimensional structure translates into the relational dynamics of ordinary space. Actualisation, interaction, and measurement are thus left underexplored; the wavefunction serves as a stand-in for what is not yet understood about relational emergence.

The ontological cost

Reality is displaced from relationally accessible events into a shadowy, abstract space. Possibility becomes encoded mathematically rather than perspectivally, and relational alignment is obscured. Observables and interactions are derivatives of a structure that cannot itself be directly related to the world, leaving the ontology of quantum actualisation unresolved.

The epistemic collapse

Treating the wavefunction as “real” risks collapsing epistemic clarity. Predictions can be accurate, but they are grounded in abstraction rather than relational understanding. Experiments confirm the formalism, but not the reality of the Hilbert space ontology. Knowledge becomes a function of calculation rather than relational insight.

The theological return

Elevating the wavefunction mirrors a quasi-theological impulse: reality is invested in an inaccessible, all-encompassing structure. The high-dimensional space functions like a hidden cosmos, governing lower-dimensional phenomena from beyond observation, much like a transcendent divine realm shaping the world indirectly.

A relational reframing

Relational ontology resolves the puzzle by treating the wavefunction as a tool of construal, not a literal entity. Quantum states encode relational potentialities that actualise perspectivally in spacetime, through interaction and alignment. Possibility and actuality are emergent, not pre-encoded in an abstract mathematical cosmos.

Conclusion

Wavefunction realism exemplifies ontological evasion by substituting abstract formalism for relational understanding. A relational reframing restores coherence: the wavefunction is a map of potential, actualisation occurs through relation, and the abstract does not supplant the relational grounding of reality.

Ontological Evasions in Physics, Part 2 The Block Universe: Freezing Time to Save Equations

Relativity revolutionised physics by dissolving the absolute backdrop of Newtonian space and time. Space and time were no longer separate containers but fused into spacetime. Yet out of this insight came one of physics’ most tenacious evasions: the block universe.

The evasive manoeuvre

The block universe takes spacetime as a four-dimensional slab, already complete from beginning to end. Past, present, and future are equally real; the entire history of the cosmos is laid out “all at once.” What we experience as the flow of time is relegated to illusion, a parochial trick of consciousness.

Why does this picture persist? Because it preserves the mathematical elegance of relativity. Treating the cosmos as a fixed four-dimensional geometry keeps the equations neat and symmetric. But the neatness comes at an ontological cost.

The ontological cost

In the block universe, possibility is frozen. The future is no less determined than the past; becoming is erased. Individuation can no longer emerge, since all events already exist. Relation collapses into geometry, a static adjacency with no openness.

This is not merely determinism; it is the denial of temporality itself. The world becomes a sculpture, not a process. Construal, alignment, emergence—these are written out of the script.

The epistemic collapse

If the block universe is true, then the very practice of science is incoherent. Experiment depends on temporal unfolding: posing a question, intervening, waiting for an outcome. But if outcomes are already fixed in the block, experiment is just our traversing of a pre-laid track. Inquiry becomes a form of tourism through an already-finished landscape.

More subtly, the block universe deprives science of its own reflexivity. Scientific practice is itself a temporal process of conjecture, critique, and revision. To deny the openness of time is to deny the openness of science itself.

The theological return

Once again, what presents itself as “hard-headed” physics smuggles in theological undertones. The block universe is a cosmic manuscript, already authored, where becoming is replaced by eternal inscription. It echoes the ancient image of the book of fate: everything already written, nothing truly unfolding.

A relational reframing

Relational ontology does not require such evasions. Time is not an illusion to be explained away, but the very mode of perspectival actualisation. Becoming is real because relation individuates and aligns in ways that cannot be pre-scripted. Possibility is not the weak shadow of a fixed block; it is the condition for emergent construals of reality.

From this view, relativity’s real insight is not that time is illusory, but that the separation of time and space was always perspectival. Relation unfolds across multiple horizons, but this does not erase temporality—it multiplies it.

Conclusion

The block universe is not a courageous extrapolation of relativity but an evasion: freezing time to preserve equations, even at the expense of ontology and epistemology alike. What physics calls elegance here is, in truth, paralysis.

The alternative is not to retreat into illusionism, but to affirm the openness of time as relational becoming. Only then can physics move beyond the block and into the living cosmos it seeks to understand.