# A Maxwell Universe – Table of Contents ## PART I — FOUNDATIONS OF REALITY 1. From Darkness, Light - Events as primitives - Registration of change - Operational awareness and causal loops 2. Time - Time as emergent ordering - Reconstruction of the past - Fragility of consensus interpretation 3. Orderings - Causal steps and chains - Loops, clocks, and recurrence - Self-sustaining loops as noticers 4. Counting Steps - Duration as step-counting - Distance from minimal causal chains - Effective geometry from causal distances - Dimensionality from low-distortion embeddings 5. Space - Space as the collection of all causal distances - Multiple embeddings and non-unique geometry - Compression as the basis of perceived structure - Arithmetic as another emergent pattern 6. Plato and the Cave - Shadows and inaccessible causal substrate - Representations from limited effects - No guarantee of uniqueness or stability of models 7. Mathematics and Reality - Pattern-ascription vs. projection - Laws as stable compressions - Limits of mathematical description - Mathematics as tool, not foundation ## PART II — THE POINT-MASS PATH 1. Geometry Before the Point-Mass - Ancient geometry as ideal form - Plato: perfect structures behind appearances - Descartes: analytic geometry and the denial of empty space 2. Newton - Theological grounding of order - Absolute space and absolute time - Point-mass as calculational convenience turned ontology - Tension around action-at-a-distance 3. Ether - Need for a medium under the point-mass picture - Electromagnetic propagation and the assumed substrate 4. Michelson–Morley - Failure to detect ether - Patches added to preserve the ontology - Spacetime geometry replacing the ether while keeping point-like matter ### Part II.B — Fragmentation of the Point-Mass Framework 5. Classical Mechanics - Point-masses with definite positions - Continuous trajectories in absolute space and time 6. Relativity - Point-masses retained, background replaced by geometry - Smooth fields and curvature as governing structure 7. Quantum Theory - Discreteness without definite positions - Collapse vs. continuous evolution 8. Quantum Field Theory - Fields with point-like excitations - Renormalization and the unresolved ontology 9. The Resulting Split - Incompatible inheritances: localization, smoothness, continuity, discreteness - Many successful theories, no unified ontology - The patches worked; the ontology did not. ## PART III — A MAXWELL ONTOLOGY 6. Rydberg Series: EM standing waves on toroidal surfaces - [Hydrogen Atom Quantization from Purely Classical Maxwell Electromagnetic Fields](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Hydrogen%20Atom%20Quantization%20from%20Purely%20Classical%20Maxwell%20Electromagnetic%20Fields/Hydrogen%20Atom%20Quantization%20from%20Purely%20Classical%20Maxwell%20Electromagnetic%20Fields.md.html) 7. Maxwell Ontology: deriving Newton from Maxwell - [Explaining Conservation Laws in a Maxwell Universe Ontology](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Explaining%20Conservation%20Laws%20in%20a%20Maxwell%20Universe%20Ontology/Explaining%20Conservation%20Laws%20in%20a%20Maxwell%20Universe%20Ontology.md.html) - [Gravity from Energy: Emergent \(L^{-2}\) Force from Constant-Energy and Wave-Like Interactions](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Emergent%20L%5E-2%20force%20in%20a%20Pure%20Maxwell%20Universe%20from%20Constant-Energy%20and%20Wave-Like%20Interactions/Emergent%20-L%5E-2%20Interaction%20Force%20in%20a%20Pure%20Maxwell%20Universe%20from%20Constant-Energy%20and%20Wave-Like%20Interactions.md.html) 8. Photon as Torus: opposing circulations; decomposition - WIP: Main idea is that a standing electromagnetic wave on a torus decomposes into counter-circulating energy flows (electron / positron). 9. Toroidal Shells: (m,n) flows, 1/r² decay, topological charge - [Defining Topological Charge in a Source-Free Maxwell Universe](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Defining%20Topological%20Charge%20in%20a%20Source-Free%20Maxwell%20Universe/Defining%20Topological%20Charge%20in%20a%20Source-Free%20Maxwell%20Universe.md.html) ## PART IV — QUANTUM WITHOUT QUANTUM 10. No Quantum, No Collapse: PCF deterministic branching - [Un-measuring via Finite-Bath Control: Saving the Cat with a Programmable Collapse Filter](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Un-measuring%20via%20Finite-Bath%20Control%20-%20Saving%20the%20Cat%20with%20a%20Programmable%20Collapse%20Filter/Un-measuring%20into%20Conditional%20Reality%20Engineering.md.html) 11. Schrödinger from Maxwell: slow-envelope dynamics - [Deriving the Schrödinger Equation from Source-Free Maxwell Dynamics](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Deriving%20the%20Schr%C3%B6dinger%20Equation%20from%20Source%E2%80%91Free%20Maxwell%20Dynamics/Deriving%20the%20Schr%C3%B6dinger%20Equation%20from%20Source%E2%80%91Free%20Maxwell%20Dynamics%20v2.md.html) 12. Energy Fractions: probability as energy distribution - [Probabilities as Field-Energy Fractions](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Classical%20deterministic%20entanglement%20from%20a%20scalar%20energy%20field/Classical%20deterministic%20entanglement%20from%20a%20scalar%20energy%20field.md.html) 13. Finite Environments: deviations from Born statistics - (WIP) ## PART V — GRAVITATION AND LARGE-SCALE PHYSICS 14. Energy–Energy as Gravity: refractive geometry - [Gravity as a Dielectric](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Gravity%20as%20a%20Dielectric/Gravity%20as%20a%20Dielectric.md.html) - [Dark Matter as Orthogonal Energy Flow in a Topological Mode of Electrodynamics](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/_drafts/Dark%20Matter%20as%20Orthogonal%20Energy%20Flow%20in%20a%20Topological%20Mode%20of%20Electrodynamics/Dark%20Matter%20as%20Orthogonal%20Energy%20Flow%20in%20a%20Topological%20Mode%20of%20Electrodynamics.md.html) 15. Maxwellian Relativity: Lorentz symmetry and curvature emerging from medium - [Interference as Polarization: The Electromagnetic Field as Its Own Medium](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/_drafts/Interference%20as%20Polarization:%20The%20Electromagnetic%20Field%20as%20Its%20Own%20Medium/Interference%20as%20Polarization:%20The%20Electromagnetic%20Field%20as%20Its%20Own%20Medium.md.html) ## PART VI — TOPOLOGY, MIND, AND EMERGENCE 16. In–Out Meta-Structure: inversion loop and self-reference - [The In–Out Self‐Referential Field Vibration](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/The%20In%E2%80%93Out%20Self%E2%80%90Referential%20Field%20Vibration/The%20In%E2%80%93Out%20Self%E2%80%90Referential%20Field%20Vibration.md.html) 17. Mode Aggregation: collective (m,n) frequencies and black-body spectrum - (WIP) ## PART VII — THERMODYNAMICS AND COSMOLOGY 18. Thermodynamics and End-State: dipole minimum; Gaussian flux = 0 - [Thermodynamics in a Maxwell Universe, and a non-fundamental arrow of time](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Thermodynamics%20in%20a%20Maxwell%20Universe%2C%20and%20a%20non-fundamental%20arrow%20of%20time/Thermodynamics%20in%20a%20Maxwell%20Universe%2C%20and%20a%20non-fundamental%20arrow%20of%20time.md.html) 19. Energy circulation diagrams - (WIP) ## PART VIII — EMERGENCE OF SELF 20. Self, time and space as imprints of a self-sustaining loop {#EmergenceOfSelf} - [Emergence of Self-Awareness from a Cause–Effect Loop](https://preprints.preferredframe.com/Emergence%20of%20Self-Awareness%20from%20a%20Cause%E2%80%93Effect%20Loop/Emergence%20of%20Self-Awareness%20from%20a%20Cause%E2%80%93Effect%20Loop%20v2.md.html) ## Back Cover