Abstract
The contributions collected in this volume investigate a fundamental question that is usually presupposed only implicitly in the natural sciences: under what conditions can world arise and persist at all.
The point of departure is the observation that modern physical theories have achieved an extraordinary degree of formal precision, while at the same time often presupposing what they cannot themselves explain—namely, the stabilization of world as a historically effective nexus.
The volume therefore introduces a categorial distinction between theoretical correctness and world-founding capability. Theories may be internally consistent, empirically confirmed, and technically successful without thereby already explaining the conditions under which world can appear and exert effects at all. This difference forms the starting point of the analyses that follow.
On this basis, the question of the direction of time is reformulated. Time no longer appears primarily as a parameter of physical processes, but as a trace of irreversible world-binding. World arises through processes in which possibility is transferred into concrete existence and is thereby bound irreversibly. The direction of time is an expression of this binding.
Several contributions show how this perspective renders central physical concepts newly legible. Relativistic differences in time no longer appear as mere numerical deviations, but as irreversible shifts in the conditions under which world has taken place. World-processes can therefore be conceived neither linearly nor as fully reversible; they follow a curved structure in which recurrence always occurs under changed conditions.
Against this background, the limits of formal reconstruction become visible. Simulations, informational models, and artificial intelligence operate within reconstructible state spaces and therefore cannot generate world-binding, but only process its traces. Even fundamental physical limits—such as the speed of light—appear from this perspective not merely as dynamical constraints, but as structural conditions of world-relatedness itself.
The volume does not present itself as a competitor to physical theories, but as an ontological clarification of their presuppositions. It asks not how world functions within existing models, but under what conditions it can appear as world at all.
Keywords
philosophy of physics, foundations of physics, ontology of physics, direction of time, relativity theory interpretation, dark energy ontology, vacuum energy, measurement problem, simulation and reality, world-formation, world-binding, world-founding capacity, operatoric ontology, structural limits of physics
Citation
Speed, Timothy. Meta-World Physics – Dark Energy, Vacuum Residues and Structural Limits (Studies in World-Formation, Vol. 4). Zenodo, 2026. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18984177.
Direct access to the full text: Speed_2026_World-Binding-Vol_4_en.pdf