Universal Scale Change as a Unifying Scientific Principle

This work proposes universal scale contraction as a unifying interpretive principle in physics and cosmology. In contrast to the standard expansion paradigm—which applies scale change selectively to galaxies while holding atoms, rulers, and physical laws fixed—this framework treats scale itself as dynamic and universal. All forms descend together, with no fixed background or absolute ruler. Viewed through contraction, many long-standing paradoxes of modern physics dissolve rather than require patching. Quantum entanglement reflects shared coherence rather than nonlocal influence. Vacuum energy persists naturally rather than diverging catastrophically. The horizon problem, the arrow of time, dark energy, and recent observational tensions (including discrepancies in the Hubble constant and the early appearance of massive galaxies) arise not as anomalies, but as expected consequences of scale-based descent. Within this framework, redshift is reinterpreted as a relational effect between contracting measures rather than recession through expanding space. Time emerges as the directional marker of universal descent. Relativity and quantum mechanics appear as complementary descriptions of a single scaling process: geometry describing relational deformation, probability describing the collapse of coherence into form. This document is intended as a scientific and conceptual analysis of contraction as an alternative cosmological principle. It does not assume a beginning or end to existence, nor does it introduce new physical laws. Rather, it offers a coherent reinterpretation beneath established formalisms, removing the hidden assumption of a fixed stage on which physics unfolds. This work is conceptually aligned with a separate foundational thesis on existence, scale, and time, but stands independently as a physical interpretation suitable for ongoing revision, discussion, and potential experimental engagement.