Re(l)ality: The View From Nowhere vs. The View From Everywhere
Abstract
This paper investigates the mathematical and philosophical foundations of relational observables and reference frames using the fibre bundle formalism. Two paradigms are contrasted: the View from Nowhere, which interprets frame-dependent observables as perspectives on an invariant equivalence class, and the View from Everywhere which interprets each frame-dependent observables as a fully-fledged fundamental reality. The ontology endorsed by the View from Everywhere, termed Relality, is inherently fragmented, yet not solipsistic: inter-translatability between distinct, frame-dependent realities is possible. The paper challenges perspectivalist metaphysics and critiques the reliance on frame-free structures, arguing they obscure both empirical content and physical information. Central to the discussion is the challenge of providing a perspicuous and parsimonious characterisation of the gauge-invariant content of the theory.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.20520,
title = {Re(l)ality: The View From Nowhere vs. The View From Everywhere},
author = {Nicola Bamonti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.20520},
year = {2025}
}