# What Is Cause? Cause is not directly observed. What is directly observed is registered change. We register configurations. We compare records. If the records differ, change has been noticed. Because physical registrations do not present contradictions — a given record does not assign multiple incompatible values to the same quantity at the same location — we infer an order in the reconfiguration. That persistent order is what later receives causal language: this before that; this producing that. Cause and consequence are therefore not primitive furniture of the world. They are compact descriptions of ordered, registered reconfiguration. Change is primary. Cause is the interpretation added afterward.