Selection as Ontology: A Non-Dual Framework for Time, Identity, and
Figshare July 10, 2026 Mark Lemon
A minimal ontological framework is proposed in which selection—the actualization of an element from a possibility space—is the sole primitive. From this postulate, a recursively grown selection graph and a local coherence measure kappa generate temporal partial ordering, identity as basin stabilization, and the subject-object distinction as an internal basin partition. Description is selection; first-person structure emerges as recursive self-indexed closure within stabilized basins; agency is self-indexed coherence elevation under indeterminacy. The framework introduces no new empirical predictions but constrains admissible ontological interpretations by eliminating category separation between structure and experience. The central result is a dissolution of the hard problem of consciousness: with selection as primitive, no additional primitive is available to ground a structure/experience distinction, and the distinction cannot be coherently formulated within the framework.