Modelling the Formation of Reality, Step by Step
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Relational and information-based descriptions of reality have been explored from multiple directions, including proposals that physical phenomena may arise from the organization of information (e.g., Wheeler, Landauer, Vopson). This paper introduces a conceptual and descriptive framework that approaches the same question from an unexpected domain: sustained interaction with large language models. In this setting, a distinctive pattern becomes directly observable. A space of weighted possibilities, shaped by context, gives rise to discrete realizations. Each realization immediately feeds back into the context, altering the conditions for what can follow. Crucially, this process can be followed as a sequence: individual realizations appear one after another on the interface, allowing the evolution of the system to be observed step by step, including the conditions leading into each realization and the changes that follow it. The central question is not whether language models are equivalent to physical systems, but whether they make visible a structural dynamic that is otherwise only indirectly accessible. Relational and informational descriptions are typically developed within the boundaries of individual domains. This work instead asks whether such a principle can be abstracted from its substrate and recognized across different systems as a shared pattern of realization. If similar structures can be identified across independent domains, this raises the possibility of a common descriptive layer - one in which observations in one domain may offer clues for exploring another. The paper illustrates this structure through cross-domain mapping and outlines how such dynamics could be examined in controlled LLM settings. Rather than proposing a new physical theory, it offers a different point of entry: treating large language models as a transparent laboratory in which relational dynamics of realization can be followed in sequence. Such a perspective may contribute to cross-domain modelling and open a space where scientific and philosophical questions about the nature of reality can be approached within a shared framework. The implications remain open.
Author: Pudsey, Veronika
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203972276