1 The Assumption of “Causality”

Physics presents the universe as a chain of cause and effect. Every event, every motion, is the consequence of what came before, constrained by immutable laws. Cause is treated as a universal bridge linking past to future, a principle written into the fabric of reality itself.

Yet causality is not observed; it is construed. When we point to one event and declare it the cause of another, we are drawing a cut in the relational potential of the system. This cut is a choice of perspective, a way of organising patterns of dependence, not a decree embedded in the world.

Initial conditions, measurement, and randomness all feed into this construal. What counts as cause depends on where we begin (our “initial conditions”), how we register events (our “measurement”), and which outcomes we treat as structured versus “random.” Causality is not revealed; it is enacted.

By treating causality as an absolute, physics naturalises a perspective-specific pattern, projecting modulation where only modalisation exists. The world does not compel sequences of events in itself; rather, our frameworks select sequences to be treated as compelling. To see the frame is to recognise that the chain of cause and effect is a relational artefact, stabilised by repeated construal, not an ontological law.