Reintroduction of ontology
RSI holds that quantum theory describes the behavior of matter precisely but cannot say what matter is, and fills the gaps with placeholders.
Quantum theory often begins with mathematical operators and abstract state spaces. Only afterward does it ask what these correspond to in physical reality. Superposition, wavefunction collapse, virtual particles, and vacuum fluctuations are indispensable to calculation, yet their physical status remains unsettled or deliberately set aside.
The paper offers the electron as an example. Physics can describe its charge, spin, mass, and probable location with great accuracy. Ask what an electron actually is (a ball, a wave, a field excitation, or a wrinkle in geometry) and the mathematics falls silent.
RSI argues that physics has filled such gaps with placeholders. Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and virtual particles are, in this view, plugs that force equations to close. Physics has mapped the dashboard of the machine and mistaken the map for the territory. The theory holds that true understanding requires ontology: an account of what matter is, not only what it does.
From the paper: Chapter I, Reintroduction of Ontology. Read the full section
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