The Generative Projection Framework

Modern science provides extraordinarily successful descriptions of nature, yet at a foundational level it remains deeply fragmented. Quantum mechanics, spacetime physics, gauge theories, thermodynamics and theories of consciousness operate within partially incompatible conceptual frameworks, each treating its own descriptive structures as fundamental.

Within physics, this fragmentation becomes particularly apparent at the foundational level. Persistent problems such as the measurement problem, the nature of spacetime, quantum nonlocality, the arrow of time and black hole information paradoxes have resisted resolution despite decades of theoretical development. These difficulties are often addressed by introducing new mechanisms, new entities or additional layers of theory—yet the underlying conceptual tensions remain.

This raises a deeper question: are these problems indications of missing dynamics and/or incomplete theories - or do they instead reflect unresolved ontological assumptions about what is taken to be fundamental? In particular, it invites reconsideration of whether unification should proceed through further reduction to ever more primitive constituents or through a clarification of the ontological status of the descriptive structures already in use.

The Generative Projection Framework (GPF) is a unifying ontological and methodological framework developed to address this fragmentation. Rather than seeking unification through reduction, the framework distinguishes between an underlying generative level and multiple projection-dependent descriptive regimes.

The framework preserves the empirical success of established theories while clarifying their ontological status and mutual relations. It is currently developed across a coordinated body of research in physics, philosophy of science, and psychology and is under active peer review.

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Overview figure

Figure: Generative level, projection sectors (PPS & CPS), effective sectors (spacetime, quantum description, consciousness etc.).