# Chapter 1: Something Exists Something exists. This is not hypothesis. To doubt it requires something to perform the doubt. Existence is the starting point. Nothing else is. ## Observation Is Interaction Observation is not passive. To observe is to interact. To interact requires shared structure—a bridge through which change propagates. If two things shared no structure, they could not influence one another. Therefore: everything that interacts participates in common substrate. ## Energy as Substrate We observe: - Effects propagate - Influences travel - Interactions occur Therefore substrate exists. We call it **energy** because in physics, energy is the conserved quantity that manifests through change. Energy is observed to: - Exist in measurable amounts - Change - Move - It's not created nor destroyed. These are empirical facts. ## What Follows If energy is the common substrate, then: - What exists is energy distribution - What changes is energy redistribution - What moves is energy transport Everything else —particles, forces, mass, quantum behavior— must arise from patterns of transport. That is the thesis: the flow of something is enough; this something, the only thing there is, we call it energy. ## Summary - Something exists - Interaction requires shared structure - In this book we call this substrate energy - We describe the world as organized energy flow