Papers · Preprint
To Notch a Stone with Six Birds: Time as a Theory Artifact of Order, Measure, and Arrow
Time as three separate things a layer has to earn.
In plain words
Talk about time mixes three notions: the order of events, the ticks of a clock, and the one way direction. A layer has time when it stabilizes all three.
In a finite Markov lab the paper separates them under controls. In a near reversible null regime the arrow is zero. In a record coupled driven regime it is decisively nonzero.
Coarse graining cannot fake an arrow. Maintenance budget reduces clock drift. Closure defects trigger theory extension only in an enablement regime. Protocol loops show holonomy, which blocks a single global time.
What it shows
- Four controlled separations of order, tick and arrow.
- Causation time versus enablement time.
- A reproducible audit and control workflow.
What it does not claim
A layer relative account; no claim about fundamental physical time.
Cite
Tsiokos, I. (2026). To Notch a Stone with Six Birds: Time as a Theory Artifact of Order, Measure, and Arrow. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18495363