Seamless Hourglass Model (SHG)

Seamless Hourglass Model (SHG) is an information-theoretic interpretation framework for quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology. It does not propose new forces, particles, or equations of motion. Instead, it treats standard physics as different regimes of a single underlying principle:

Physical reality emerges from coherence-driven compression of an informational substrate — the Infostream.

SHG is meant as a conceptual and interpretational model, not as a finished “theory of everything”.

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1. High-level idea

• Fundamental entity: an evolving informational continuum (Infostream).
• Space and time: projected coordinates that arise from constraints on coherence optimization, not fundamental axes.
• Quantum behavior: pre-compression optimization over candidate states (superposition, entanglement).
• Classical outcomes: post-compression stable states (measurement, definite histories).
• Gravity: effective geometry of compression — regions where shorter descriptions correspond to what GR calls “curvature”.
• Cosmology: large-scale phenomena (inflation, dark-energy-like expansion) reinterpreted as changes in effective coherence-propagation rates, not as separate fields.

Standard QM and GR remain intact at the empirical level; SHG reorganizes their ontology.

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2. Repository contents

Seamless-Hourglass-Model/
│
├── README.md                 # This file
├── LICENSE                   # Open license for the text (e.g. CC BY 4.0)
│
├── SHG Model.md              # Main exposition (Markdown)
├── SHG Model.pdf             # Same content as PDF
│
├── experiments/
│   ├── Coherence Pressure Test.md   # Adaptive interference protocol
│   └── Coherence Pressure Test.pdf
│
└── references/
    └── Core Refs.md          # Short list of conceptual references

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3. Main document: SHG Model

The main document SHG Model presents:

• The Infostream as a non-metric informational substrate.

• SHG as an interpretation of quantum mechanics:

  • Wavefunction as a pre-compression possibility cloud.
  • Collapse as coherence-driven compression rather than fundamental randomness.
  • Entanglement as grouped encoding of correlated variables, with “nonlocality” treated as a projection artefact.

• SHG and general relativity:

  • Spacetime metric as a geometry of compression costs.
  • Curvature as local coherence bias.
  • Gravity as emergent order: the tendency toward globally compressible states.

• SHG and cosmology:

  • Variable apparent effective speed of light as an emergent property of coherence propagation.
  • Early low-correlation regime instead of inflaton fields.
  • Late-time acceleration as a shift in effective coherence propagation, not a separate dark-energy substance.

• Limitations:

  • SHG is ontological/interpretational; it does not yet supply new closed-form predictive equations.
  • The ultimate substrate of the Infostream is not specified.
  • Testability is discussed only at the heuristic level.

The model is intended to be compatible with existing empirical results while offering a more economical informational ontology.

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4. Experimental protocol: Coherence pressure test

The experiments/Coherence Pressure Test document describes a compressivity-driven interference test:

• A Mach–Zehnder or double-slit interferometer is toggled between:

  • Interference ON (which-path erased),
  • Interference OFF (which-path marked).

• A closed-loop controller chooses the next configuration based only on past data, aiming to minimize the incremental description length of the full experimental log.

• Under standard QM (H₀), the compressibility of the resulting log is fully explained by the controller policy and ordinary quantum statistics.

• Under a compression-pressure hypothesis (H₁), histories that reduce global description length could be slightly favored, producing excess compressibility beyond policy-matched nulls.

Key properties:

• No superdeterminism: controller has no access to future outcomes.
• The protocol is fully compatible with standard quantum mechanics; a null result is expected and acceptable.
• A positive, robust deviation would be compatible with SHG-like dynamics but would require strong scrutiny and replication.

This protocol is optional and independent from SHG’s core ontology. It exists to give experimentalists a concrete, falsifiable handle on one of the model’s motivating ideas (compression bias in realized histories).

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5. References

See references/Core Refs.md for a short list of prior work that conceptually overlaps with SHG, including:

• Jürgen Schmidhuber on compression as a driving principle in learning and modeling.
• Stephen Wolfram’s Physics Project on emergent spacetime from discrete information updates.
• Carlo Rovelli’s relational quantum mechanics.
• João Magueijo and Andreas Albrecht on varying speed of light cosmologies.
• Nick Bostrom’s simulation argument as an abstract computational backdrop.

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6. Status & contributions

Status: conceptual framework + draft experimental protocol.

This repository is not presented as a completed physical theory. It is a structured proposal for:

• an informational reinterpretation of existing physics, and
• a concrete, falsifiable experimental probe of one of its speculative consequences.

Feedback from quantum foundations, information theory, and experimental optics communities is explicitly welcome. Pull requests with corrections, clarifications, or alternative formulations are encouraged, especially where they improve rigor without inflating ontology.