Time as Irreversible Distinction Update: Finite Records, Causal Ordering, and Register-Time Collapse

Paper also available at https://philarchive.org/rec/WUTAIB Official website: distinctiontheory.orgPublic portal for the start guide, papers, claim status, failure registry, prior-art boundary, and citation resources. Canonical GitHub repository:https://github.com/yiningwu-research/Distinction-Theory FDS-O2 develops an operational finite-record model of time for bounded physical observers. Building on FDS-O1, where an observer is defined as a finite distinction-register and measurement as stable record formation, this paper asks what temporal order means for such a finite register. The central claim is that finite systems access temporal order only through register time: causal dependencies, clock labels, logs,…