Informational Constraint and the Emergence of Time, Irreversibility, and Meaning

This preprint presents Quantum Information Field Theory (QIFT), a conceptual framework situated within the philosophy of physics that treats informational constraints as ontologically primitive. Rather than proposing new physical laws, mathematical formalisms, or empirical predictions, QIFT aims to clarify the ontological conditions under which time, irreversibility, meaning, and intelligibility arise. The central claim of QIFT is that physical systems persist only insofar as they successfully maintain internal informational constraints against degradation arising from internal complexity and external disturbance. A fundamental asymmetry is identified between constraint degradation, which occurs passively and diffusely, and constraint repair, which is selective, local, and intrinsically costly. This asymmetry renders perfect reversibility impossible in principle and provides a structural basis for irreversibility without appeal to special initial conditions or a fundamental temporal parameter. Within this framework, time is reinterpreted as the cumulative record of a system’s effort to resist constraint failure, rather than as a background dimension in which systems evolve. Meaning is treated as a fragile emergent feature arising from sustained informational coherence, while collapse functions diagnostically as an indicator of unsustainable constraint maintenance strategies. The framework further distinguishes between intelligence and wisdom, defining the latter as the capacity to select constraint strategies that acknowledge fragility, manage cost, and delay collapse rather than deny vulnerability. This preprint is intended to invite scholarly discussion and interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers interested in the foundations of physics, informational ontology, irreversibility, emergence, and the philosophy of science. A separate, journal-targeted version of this work has been prepared for peer review.