Structural Constraints, Perspectival Arrows, and the Metaphysics of Entropy and Time

Abstract

This paper develops an expanded structural-perspectival framework that reconciles the time-symmetry of fundamental physical laws with the asymmetric phenomenology of temporal experience and quantum retrocausality. Building on Penrose’s geometric interpretation of low-entropy boundary conditions and Price’s analysis of time-symmetry in entanglement, the argument situates entropy as a global geometric gradient within a block-universe ontology. The apparent “flow” of time is reinterpreted as a cognitive artifact arising from coarse-grained access to globally constrained structure. The paper introduces entity-agnostic realism, a metaphysical stance in which theoretical entities function as modal-structural roles rather than intrinsic objects, thereby avoiding ontological inflation while preserving realism. Retrocausal correlations are explained through orthogonality relations and global consistency constraints in the space of possible configurations, resolving paradoxes such as bilking without invoking backward-in-time causation. The framework integrates epistemic limitations, biological filtering mechanisms, and modal coherence to show how embedded observers generate unidirectional temporal phenomenology from a static spacetime manifold. The result is a unified metaphysics of entropy and time that harmonizes determinism with retrocausality, structural asymmetry with experiential directionality, and global constraint with local uniqueness.