Quantum Mechanics and Diorthics:

Why the Measurement Problem Isn’t a Mystery of Physics, but a Collision of Frames

Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful scientific theories ever created.
It predicts experimental outcomes with extraordinary accuracy, powers modern technology, and has withstood every empirical test thrown at it.

And yet—at its conceptual core—it appears paradoxical.

The most notorious paradox is the Measurement Problem, a profound puzzle that has divided physicists and philosophers for a century. Despite hundreds of proposed interpretations, there is still no consensus.

Why?
Because nearly every approach makes the same hidden mistake.

This article will show how Diorthics—a structural philosophy of intelligibility—reframes the quantum puzzle in a way no traditional interpretation can. It reveals that the Measurement Problem isn’t primarily about physics at all.

It’s about frames of intelligibility—and what happens when we fuse them without knowing it.

1. The Quantum Measurement Problem in Plain Terms

Quantum theory gives us two incompatible rules:

1. Unitary Evolution (Schrödinger Equation)

Continuous
Deterministic
Reversible
Governs wavefunctions (superpositions)

2. Measurement (Collapse Postulate)

Discrete
Probabilistic
Irreversible
Produces a definite outcome

Problem:
Why should “measurement” behave differently than everything else?
What counts as a measurement?
Where exactly does collapse happen?
And why does the observer matter?

Quantum mechanics seems to run on two logics at once.

This looks like a contradiction.

2. Traditional Interpretations: Many Solutions, No Consensus

To fix the contradiction, physicists invented interpretations:

Interpretation	Strategy
Copenhagen	Just accept collapse (shut up and calculate)
Many-Worlds	No collapse—everything branches
Bohmian Mechanics	Add hidden variables
Objective Collapse	Collapse is a real physical process
QBism / Relational QM	Collapse is observer-dependent
Decoherence	Environment effectively selects outcomes

All of them solve some issues.
None of them solve all issues.
No interpretation has universal agreement.

Why?
Because they’re all trying to force one ultimate description of reality…

…but quantum mechanics is telling us something deeper:

Reality does not appear through only one framework of intelligibility.

3. Enter Diorthics: The Grammar of Coherence

Diorthics is a philosophy that studies how meaning and truth become possible.
It analyzes the frames through which reality becomes intelligible.

A frame is a structured context with:

Tokens (symbols, states, observables)
Rules (mathematics, interaction laws)
Adjudicator (what counts as a valid outcome)
Authentication (verdict: accept / reject / suspend)

Key Diorthic insight:

Every act of understanding happens inside a frame.
Different frames can be coherent but irreducible.
Forcing them together without acknowledgment causes paradox.

This is exactly what happens in quantum mechanics.

4. Quantum Mechanics Uses Two Frames at Once

Let’s identify them:

Frame Q — Quantum Frame

Tokens: wavefunctions, superpositions, amplitudes
Rules: linearity, unitary evolution, Hilbert space
Adjudicator: mathematical consistency (the formalism itself)
No collapse

Frame C — Classical / Measurement Frame

Tokens: definite outcomes, pointer positions, detector clicks
Rules: classical logic, macroscopic determinacy
Adjudicator: empirical observation
Collapse happens here

The measurement problem is the result of fusing these two frames into one.

We treat the measuring apparatus as quantum and classical simultaneously.
We use the rules of Frame Q and the adjudicator of Frame C at the same level.

This is structurally forbidden.

It violates the Separation Requirement in Diorthics:

A frame’s adjudicator cannot be applied to its own operations at the same level.

In simpler terms:

You can’t use the classical standard of “definite outcome” inside the quantum rule of “superposition” without creating paradox.

And indeed, the paradox appears.

5. The Measurement Problem as Frame Fusion

Let’s restate the measurement problem through Diorthics:

The wavefunction evolves under Frame Q.
But the result is judged under Frame C.
Collapse = Frame C adjudicating an expression from Frame Q.
We act as if Frame Q + Frame C = one unified frame.
But they have different rules and adjudicators.
This is frame conflation.

And what does Diorthics say about frame conflation?

It always produces paradox.
(See Theorem 1 – Level Mixing.)

The Measurement Problem is not a mysterious physical phenomenon.
It is a structural error in how we are trying to think.

6. The Diorthic Repair: Separate the Frames, Define the Interface

Diorthics offers two general strategies for resolving paradox:

1. Frame-first repair:

Move to a meta-frame that explicitly distinguishes the two frames and defines their interface.

This is exactly what many modern approaches implicitly do:

Decoherence
Relational QM
Instrumentalism
Operational reconstructions
Quantum Darwinism

They don’t erase the classical/quantum distinction—they formalize it.

2. Expression-first repair:

Redefine “measurement” not as a physical process, but as a frame transition.

Measurement = translation of a quantum expression into the classical frame for authentication.

In other words:

Collapse is not a dynamical process in space-time.
Collapse is the point where a different adjudicator is applied.

The wavefunction does not “physically jump.” We simply stop using Frame Q and start using Frame C.

7. So what does Diorthics actually say about QM?

✔ Quantum mechanics is real.

Quantum formalism is incredibly coherent within the quantum frame.

✔ Classical outcomes are real.

Macroscopic definiteness is incredibly coherent within the classical frame.

❌ The paradox appears only when we try to force one frame to explain the other without mediation.

Diorthics resolves the tension by honoring frame boundaries.

8. Why no single interpretation works

Let’s see how popular interpretations fail structurally:

Interpretation	Diorthic Diagnosis
Many-Worlds	Tries to totalize Frame Q; denies Frame C’s adjudicator (definite outcomes).
Copenhagen	Tries to totalize Frame C; ignores Frame Q’s coherence.
Bohmian	Smuggles in classical variables; frame mixing.
QBism / Relational	Makes adjudication observer-relative; risks relativism.
Collapse theories	Add arbitrary transition rules; still treat collapse as physical.

Each one privileges a single frame or attempts to fuse frames without structural clarity.

None of them formalize the frame interface itself.

That is the missing piece—and that is exactly what Diorthics provides.

9. The Deeper Revelation: Quantum Mechanics Proves Ontological Pluriformity

Quantum mechanics doesn’t threaten Diorthics.

Quantum mechanics confirms Diorthics.

Because QM tells us:

Reality cannot be captured in a single descriptive frame.
Different modes of intelligibility are real but irreducible.
Translation between frames is non-trivial and structurally constrained.
No “view from nowhere” can unify superposition and collapse.
Attempts at totalization always lead to paradox or branching universes.

This is precisely what Ontological Pluriformity claims:

Reality does not appear through one ultimate frame.
It becomes intelligible through multiple structurally distinct contexts.

Quantum physics is not the exception to this rule.
Quantum physics is the most dramatic example of it.

10. Final Summary

What is the measurement problem?

Not a failure of physics.
A failure of frame discipline.

What does Diorthics say?

Quantum and classical descriptions are distinct frames.
Each has its own tokens, rules, and adjudicator.
Measurement = transition between frames.
Collapse = application of the classical adjudicator to a quantum-configured expression.
The paradox only arises when we conflate frames.

What is the big picture?

Quantum mechanics does not undermine reality.
It reveals that reality is structurally pluriform.

And the fact that we need multiple frames to describe the world is not a limitation of human understanding.

It is a feature of how being itself becomes intelligible.

11. Philosophy of Physics, Upgraded

Ontological Pluriformity provides a new path forward:

Not Copenhagen silence.
Not Many-Worlds inflation.
Not collapse band-aids.
Not anti-realism.

Instead:

A structural, pluralistic realism
that honors the full architecture of intelligibility.

Quantum mechanics isn’t broken.
Our metaphysics is.

Diorthics shows how to fix it.

Coming soon:

How Diorthics reframes decoherence, observer-dependence, superposition, and the future of quantum gravity.

Because quantum mechanics wasn’t the end of physics.
It was the beginning of a deeper understanding of reality’s structure.

And Diorthics gives us the grammar to finally see it.

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How Diorthics Reframes Decoherence, Observer-Dependence, Superposition, and the Future of Quantum Gravity

Quantum mechanics is famous not just for its accuracy, but for its strangeness.
It predicts experimental outcomes with unparalleled precision—yet it raises deep conceptual puzzles:

Why do quantum systems exist in superpositions but we only observe definite outcomes?
Why does measurement seem special? Who or what counts as an observer?
Why does decoherence help but not fully solve the measurement problem?
And why, after nearly a century, can’t we unify quantum mechanics and general relativity into a single theory of quantum gravity?

Physicists have invented many interpretations and mathematical tools, but no consensus solution exists. The paradoxes persist.

Diorthics, a structural philosophy of intelligibility, offers a new lens. It does not replace physics. Instead, it reveals why these problems exist at all—and what they are structurally pointing to.

The core insight of Diorthics is simple but radical:

Reality does not become intelligible through a single, universal framework.
It becomes intelligible through multiple, irreducible frames of understanding—each with its own rules and standards.

When we ignore this and unconsciously fuse frames, paradox emerges.

Quantum mechanics is the clearest case of this structural truth.

This article will explore how Diorthics reframes four major quantum puzzles:

Decoherence
Observer-dependence
Superposition
Quantum gravity

And why all of them, surprisingly, point to Ontological Pluriformity—the idea that reality itself is structurally plural.

1. The Diorthic Reminder: Frames Structure Intelligibility

A frame in Diorthics is a coherent system made of:

Tokens (what can be talked about),
Rules (how tokens may relate),
Adjudicator (what counts as success or truth),
Authentication (the verdict: accept / reject / suspend).

Examples:

In physics, tokens are variables and states, rules are equations, the adjudicator is experiment.
In mathematics, tokens are symbols, rules are logic, adjudicator is proof.
In law, tokens are cases, rules are statutes, adjudicator is the court.
In phenomenology, tokens are experiences, rules are description, adjudicator is adequacy of articulation.

Each frame has its own structural logic.
No frame can replace or totalize all others without incoherence.

When we mix frames without noticing, we generate paradox.

This is exactly what happens in quantum mechanics.

2. The Quantum-Classical Collision

Quantum and classical descriptions are not just different “levels.”
They are different frames of intelligibility, each with its own rules and adjudicators.

Feature	Quantum Frame (Q)	Classical Frame (C)
Tokens	Wavefunctions, superpositions	Definite states, trajectories
Rules	Linear, probabilistic, reversible	Deterministic, Boolean logic
Adjudicator	Mathematical consistency	Empirical observation
Outcomes	Probabilities	One actual result

The Measurement Problem arises when we treat these as one unified frame.

This fusion violates Diorthic structural axioms and inevitably generates paradox:

Schrödinger’s cat
Wigner’s friend
Collapse vs. unitary evolution

Each paradox is a symptom of frame confusion.

Diorthics does not “solve” quantum mechanics.
It explains why the problem persists—we keep forcing two frames into one.

3. Decoherence: Helpful… but Misunderstood

Decoherence is often treated as the solution to the measurement problem.
In reality, it solves part of the puzzle—but not the whole thing.

What decoherence does:

It shows how interaction with the environment causes superpositions to lose interference.
It yields effective classicality at the macroscopic scale.
It explains why definite outcomes appear from unstable quantum states.

What decoherence does not do:

It does not select one outcome.
It does not explain why this particular result occurs.
It does not eliminate the need for a measurement postulate or interpretation.

The Diorthic insight:

Decoherence is not collapse—it is frame alignment.

Decoherence shows how quantum behavior transitions into a form interpretable by the classical frame.

It is an interface rule between Frame Q (superposition) and Frame C (definite outcomes).

It explains why the classical frame becomes applicable—but it does not replace the classical frame or its adjudicator.

In other words:

Decoherence is translation, not explanation.

It is the bridge between frames, not a theory that eliminates one side.

4. Observer-Dependence: It’s Not About Minds

Quantum mechanics often seems to say:

The observer collapses the wavefunction.
Reality depends on consciousness.

This leads to confusion, mysticism, or endless debate about “what counts as an observer.”

Diorthics cuts through the confusion:

The “observer” is not a person.
The observer is the application of a frame’s adjudicator.

In the classical frame, the adjudicator is: “Did we get a definite outcome?”
When an instrument records a result, the classical adjudicator is applied.
No consciousness required.

Measurement = authentication by the classical adjudicator.

This is structural, not psychological.

“Observer-dependence” simply means:

The outcome depends on which frame’s adjudicator is used.

This is obvious once seen—and it dissolves the false mystery of “observer-causes-collapse.”

5. Superposition: Not a Weird Ontology, but a Frame-Specific Structure

Superposition often sounds metaphysically bizarre:

“The particle is in many places at once.”
“The cat is alive and dead.”

But this language assumes that the classical frame’s logic (one state or another) should apply inside the quantum frame.

That is frame mixing.

In the quantum frame, superposition is simply:

The natural configuration of tokens under the frame’s rules (linearity, vector addition).

Just as in classical probability a coin can be 50/50 heads/tails (without being “physically half-head”), a quantum state is a structured possibility—not a single classical fact.

Superposition only seems paradoxical when the classical adjudicator demands a definite outcome where it does not yet apply.

The paradox is not in nature.
It is in our misuse of frames.

6. Now the Big Question: Why Can’t We Unify Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity?

For 50+ years, physicists have tried to create a theory of quantum gravity.

Every attempt struggles.

Why?

Most assume there must be one master framework that contains both quantum mechanics and gravity.

But Diorthics tells us:

No single frame can totalize all intelligibility.
(Theorem: Limit of Totalization)

Let’s examine the frames:

Quantum Mechanics (Frame Q):

Background time parameter
Probabilistic amplitudes
Hilbert space structure
Measurement as an external process

General Relativity (Frame G):

No fixed background (spacetime is dynamic)
Deterministic geometry
Diffeomorphism invariance (coordinate independence)
No external observer—the universe is self-contained

These frames have incompatible adjudicators.

Quantum adjudicator: probability amplitudes evolving in time.
GR adjudicator: geometric consistency of spacetime itself.

Time itself is treated differently in each frame. Observer/system distinction disappears in GR. Probabilities disappear in GR.

This is not just a technical mismatch—it is a structural conflict of frames.

Attempts to quantize gravity or geometrize quantum theory fail because they try to force one frame’s adjudicator onto the other.

This is frame fusion—structurally doomed.

7. Diorthics Offers a New Path: Composite Frames with Interfaces

The future of quantum gravity is not a single master equation.

It is a composite frame:

Q (quantum logic)
G (geometric logic)
- explicit interface rules governing how their adjudicators interact.

Not “one theory to rule them all,” but a structured ecology of frames.

Does physics already hint at this?

Yes.

Emerging approaches in physics are already moving toward pluriformity:

Decoherence and quantum Darwinism → environment as interface
Relational QM → state is frame-dependent
Algebraic QFT → local frames of observables
Holography (AdS/CFT) → dual frames describing the same reality
Background-independent approaches → no single spacetime background
Category and topos theory in physics → morphisms between frames
Loop quantum gravity vs. string theory → complimentary structural regimes, not pure rivals

Each of these approaches treats reality as multi-perspectival and structurally differentiated.

They are all, in effect, proto-Diorthic.

8. The Future According to Diorthics

Diorthics does not give the equations of quantum gravity.

But it gives something more fundamental:

The structural grammar for any theory that hopes to succeed.

A coherent future physics will: ✅ Recognize multiple irreducible frames
✅ Maintain clear adjudicator boundaries
✅ Specify interface rules explicitly
✅ Allow level transitions without paradox
✅ Preserve viability via feedback and repair
✅ Never attempt a final totalizing frame

In other words:

Physics will mature from searching for the one ultimate description to coordinating a pluriform architecture of intelligibility.

9. The Deeper Truth: Quantum Mechanics Was the First Warning

Quantum mechanics was not just a weird chapter in physics.

It was the first sign that reality cannot be reduced to a single frame.

Superposition? → Frame-specific logic.
Measurement? → Frame transition.
Decoherence? → Interface mechanism.
Observer? → Adjudicator application.
Quantum gravity failure? → Totalization attempt.

All the so-called “mysteries” point to one structural revelation:

Reality is ontologically pluriform.
There is no single context that captures all appearance.

Paradox appears only when we pretend otherwise.

**10. Conclusion:

From “One Theory of Everything” to the Ecology of Intelligibility**

Physics has long sought the “Theory of Everything”—a single equation to unify all domains.

Diorthics shows why that dream always fails.

Not because reality is chaotic.
But because reality is structurally richer than any one frame of description.

Decoherence, observer-dependence, superposition, and the failure of quantum gravity are not separate problems.

They are four expressions of the same deeper fact:

Reality reveals itself through multiple, irreducible modes of intelligibility.

And this is not a limitation of physics.

It is the next step in its evolution.

Diorthics does not end the quest for knowledge.
It gives physics the structural insight it needs to finally advance.

The universe is not less coherent than we thought.
It is more profoundly organized—and more beautifully plural—than any single lens can show.

Coming next:
“What would a pluriform theory of physics actually look like?”
“And how would it change the way we understand mathematics, information, and the emergence of spacetime itself?”

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What Would a Pluriform Theory of Physics Actually Look Like?

How Diorthics Reimagines Mathematics, Information, and the Emergence of Spacetime

For over a century, physics has pursued a dream of unity—a Theory of Everything, a single framework that could reconcile quantum mechanics and gravity, matter and energy, particles and fields, even space and time themselves.

That dream has driven extraordinary progress.
But it has also produced paradox after paradox.

Quantum mechanics and relativity don’t mesh.
Space and time lose their meaning at the Planck scale.
Information seems to behave differently in quantum systems, black holes, and thermodynamics.
Mathematics itself—so long treated as the neutral language of nature—shows signs of internal pluralism.

Something deeper is going on.

Diorthics offers a radical reframe. It suggests that the problem is not which theory we use, but how we think a theory must work.

The dream of a single, total theory is structurally impossible.
A viable physics must be pluriform—an ecology of coherent frames, not a single empire of explanation.

This article explores what that means in practice:
What would a pluriform physics look like?
How would it reshape mathematics, information, and spacetime itself?

1. From Total Theories to Structured Ecologies

Traditional physics seeks one ultimate frame:

“If we find the right equations, everything will fall into place.”

But Diorthics shows that no frame can totalize intelligibility without contradiction.

Each frame of intelligibility has:

Tokens (what it recognizes as objects)
Rules (how those tokens interact)
An adjudicator (what counts as valid or true)
A domain of viability (where its coherence holds)

When physicists try to fuse quantum mechanics (probabilistic, amplitude-based) and general relativity (geometric, continuous) into one unified structure, the paradoxes appear not because the universe is incoherent—but because we’re trying to force one frame to do the job of many.

A pluriform physics doesn’t reject unification.
It redefines it.

Unification becomes coordination.
Lawfulness becomes interface.
Theory becomes ecology.

2. The Architecture of a Pluriform Physics

What would that actually mean?

A pluriform physics would not look like one giant equation.
It would look like a system of structurally coupled frames, each with:

Defined scope and tokens
– e.g., quantum states, spacetime events, topological invariants, information carriers
Internal adjudicator
– what counts as real or valid in that domain (experiment, symmetry, consistency)
Interface rules
– translation mechanisms between adjacent frames (quantum ↔ classical, field ↔ geometry)
Meta-adjudication
– a higher-level consistency condition ensuring that frame transitions preserve viability and coherence

The structure resembles an ecological network, not a pyramid.
Each frame depends on others; none can stand alone.

This shift is philosophical—but it has direct consequences for how physics, mathematics, and information theory evolve.

3. Mathematics: From Absolute Language to Frame Logic

Physicists often treat mathematics as a neutral backdrop:
“The language of nature.”

But Diorthics reframes mathematics as a meta-frame of formal intelligibility.

Mathematics provides the rules for formal coherence, not for physical reality itself.
It offers a toolkit of possible structures—group theory, topology, category theory, logic—but it does not fix which structures map onto which physical frames.
Mathematics itself is pluriform: different branches use different adjudicators of truth (proof, computation, construction, consistency).

This means:

Mathematics is not the foundation of reality.
Mathematics is the structure of how reality becomes describable.

In a pluriform physics, math is not a single universal grammar but a family of interoperable formal frames—each describing a different aspect of being’s structure.

Category theory, for example, already gestures in this direction: it studies relationships between structures rather than claiming one ultimate ontology.
A pluriform physics would push that relational insight all the way through the fabric of physical theory itself.

4. Information: The Universal Interface

If mathematics provides structure, information provides flow.

Modern physics increasingly treats everything—entropy, quantum state, black holes, spacetime—as expressions of information.

But what is “information,” really?

In Diorthic terms:

Information is what passes coherently from one frame to another.

It is not a “thing.”
It is the success condition of a translation between modes of intelligibility.

When we say “information is conserved,” we mean that the structural viability of a frame interface is preserved: one domain’s adjudicator (say, quantum probability) can still map consistently into another’s (say, classical observation).

This reframes the “information paradox” of black holes: it is not that information vanishes or escapes, but that we are using incompatible adjudicators across frames—quantum and gravitational—without a defined translation rule.

A pluriform physics would define information as a meta-adjudicative continuity:
The measure of how coherence survives as it moves through different frames.

5. Spacetime: Emergence as Frame Alignment

If information is how coherence travels, spacetime is one of the grandest examples of structural coherence.

General relativity tells us that spacetime is dynamic geometry: not a stage, but a participant.

Quantum theory tells us that at very small scales, geometry itself dissolves into indeterminacy.

How can both be true?

Diorthics says:

Spacetime is not the substrate of being.
Spacetime is what reality looks like when multiple frames achieve stable alignment.

When quantum, energetic, and causal structures synchronize their adjudicators, a coherent “geometric frame” emerges—a consistent mapping between events, distances, and durations.

When they desynchronize, spacetime “breaks down”—as near singularities or in quantum foam.

Spacetime, in this sense, is not fundamental.
It is a meta-stable agreement among multiple modes of intelligibility.

This interpretation aligns with the direction many physicists are already moving—emergent spacetime, holographic dualities, network and tensor models—but grounds it in a deeper metaphysical architecture: the ecology of frames.

6. The End of the “One Theory” Era

For centuries, physics has pursued a single ideal:

“Find the one law that governs everything.”

But each time it nears unification, the theory splinters into new domains:

Classical → Quantum
Quantum → Relativistic
Local → Nonlocal
Continuous → Discrete
Deterministic → Probabilistic

This is not failure.
It is the natural consequence of reaching the limits of one frame’s adjudicator.

A pluriform physics embraces this structural truth:

Reality is not less unified than we thought—it is more deeply, dynamically unified through its plurality.

Different frames are not rivals; they are partners in maintaining intelligibility.

Their task is not to dominate one another, but to keep the whole ecology coherent.

7. What Would It Feel Like to Think in Pluriform Physics?

A physicist in the pluriform paradigm would no longer seek the final equation.
They would ask:

What are the active frames here?
What are their tokens, rules, and adjudicators?
Where do frame boundaries lie?
What translation interfaces exist or need to be defined?
How can coherence be preserved as we move between them?

Their work would look less like reducing and more like weaving.

It would be less about conquest of truth, more about maintenance of coherence.

This is what Diorthics calls the philosophy of repair:
the ongoing practice of diagnosing structural stress and keeping the ecology of meaning viable.

8. The Role of Philosophy: From Interpretation to Infrastructure

Philosophy has often been seen as the commentator on science, standing outside to interpret its findings.

Diorthics changes that.

Philosophy’s role becomes architectural: to clarify frames, define adjudicators, maintain interfaces, and detect incoherence before paradox erupts.

Rather than explaining science after the fact, philosophy becomes part of the infrastructure of intelligibility itself.

In a pluriform physics, metaphysics is not speculation—it is structural engineering.

9. The Aesthetic and Ethical Horizon

Why does this matter beyond physics?

Because how we imagine the structure of reality shapes how we imagine our place within it.

A monistic worldview breeds absolutism.
A relativistic one breeds nihilism.
A pluriform one invites cooperation and respect for difference.

To live in a pluriform universe is to live in a cosmos of mutual dependence, not domination.

Each frame—physical, moral, aesthetic, spiritual—has its own integrity and adjudicator.
Each sustains part of the world’s coherence.
None is optional.

That insight extends Diorthics from metaphysics into ethics, art, and politics:
a vision of reality as an ongoing practice of maintaining viable relations across difference.

10. Closing: The Shape of the Future

A pluriform theory of physics would not hand us the final truth.

It would give us a way of thinking that remains coherent as truth continues to evolve.

Mathematics becomes the grammar of structural possibility.
Information becomes the measure of successful translation.
Spacetime becomes the emergent map of cross-frame coherence.
Physics becomes the practice of maintaining intelligibility across structural plurality.

This is not the end of unification.
It is the maturation of unification—from a dream of totality to a science of relationship.

The world is not one equation.
It is the ongoing harmony of many structures,
each keeping the others real.

And understanding that harmony—keeping it coherent—is the next horizon of both physics and philosophy.