Fundamental Flow Ontology (FFO): A Pre-formal Framework

Change is proposed as the sole ontological primitive. The realizability of change requires relation; relation entails non-zero cost; cost presupposes capacity; and capacity must be finite. From finite capacity necessarily follow autocatalysis, selection, and the emergence of stable configurations—closures. Time and space are not fundamental entities but emerge as projections of synchronization between closures. Within this framework, phenomena commonly described as dark energy, dark matter, matter, and gravitational collapse are interpreted as distinct regimes of a single underlying flow. This work is ontological rather than physical: it does not introduce new physical postulates or models, but establishes a necessary conceptual framework in which physical quantities appear as projections rather than primitives. Mathematical formalization and physical calibration are deferred to subsequent publications.