Introduction
How to read Informational Ontology
Informational Ontology (IO) is an attempt to describe reality by starting from what cannot be denied: pure difference and relation. From there, it builds a chain through information, awareness, value, meaning, and purpose. This page explains what the project is trying to do, who it is for, and how to move through the material without getting lost.
1. Purpose of this project
IO aims to be more than a set of interesting ideas. The target is a coherent ontology grounded in information that can speak to questions about physics, mind, ethics, and meaning without collapsing into hand-waving or vague metaphors.
The guiding constraint is simple: every step should follow from the previous ones. We start from difference, show why relation must follow, how relation gives rise to information, and how awareness, value, meaning, and purpose emerge from that informational structure.
The website version exists so that these steps can be explored at different depths. Lay readers can stay with the intuitive track; technically inclined readers can follow the more formal arguments and simulations.
2. How to move through the site
The site is organised roughly along the core ontological chain: difference → relation → information → awareness → value → meaning → purpose. You don't need to absorb everything at once. A good way to read is:
- Start with the guided path on the Start here section for a narrative, analogy-rich overview.
- Visit the Ontological chain section for a more structured, step-by-step formulation.
- Dip into Simulations to see small visual "toy worlds" that illustrate how structure can emerge from informational rules.
- Use the Glossary whenever a term feels slippery or overloaded.
If you like intuition and analogies
Follow the Start here track, read the examples, and skim the rest. You can treat the formal structure as optional scaffolding.
If you want formal structure
Treat each section as a set of claims to be checked. Follow the chain Δ → R → I → A → V → M → P and ask whether each step really follows. The simulations and analogies are then tools for stress-testing the structure, not replacements for it.
3. Scope, limits, and intended audience
IO is not a physics theory, not a theology, and not a self-help system. It is a metaphysical and structural proposal about how reality can be understood in informational terms.
The primary audience includes people who are already thinking about metaphysics, consciousness, systems theory, or foundations of physics—but it is written so that a motivated lay reader can follow with patience and the help of sidebars and diagrams.
The project makes commitments: for example, that to exist is to differ, and that information and awareness are not optional add-ons but structural features of reality. Those commitments can be challenged, but they are always stated as clearly as possible so disagreement has something definite to push against.
4. Relation to earlier drafts and future versions
This site corresponds to what was previously called Revision 4 of the Informational Ontology manuscript. The goal is to stabilise the core arguments in a public, inspectable form. Earlier drafts and private notes are treated as background material, not as canonical sources.
As the project evolves, new sections, simulations, and sidebars may be added. When that happens, the aim is clarification, not endless reinvention: changes should reduce confusion, tighten arguments, or integrate feedback—rather than shifting the foundations under the reader's feet.
If you're unsure where to go next, the Start here journey is the safest entry point. If you already like formal structure, you can instead jump to the Ontological chain.