1 The Solitary Process Thought Experiment

Imagine a universe with only a single process — a lone unfolding event. It changes, it moves, it evolves, but there is nothing else. No other events. No points of reference. No observers.

In this solitary universe, familiar questions lose their meaning:

• How long does it take? There is no “time” yet — time emerges only when multiple processes are construed relative to one another.

• Where is it? There is no “space” yet — space emerges only when processes are aligned, extended, or co-existing.

The process simply is. Its unfolding is complete in itself, independent of any horizon. It does not happen in time, nor does it occur in space. Time and space are absent because they are not intrinsic features of a process; they are relational horizons that emerge only when multiple processes are construed together.

Through this thought experiment, we glimpse the relational ontology of reality: processes are primary, and the familiar scaffolds of time and space arise only as conditions of coherence in a field of possibility.