Black Holes Before and After the Jestin Modal–Actuality Framework (JMAF): A Metaphysical Reinterpretation of the Information Paradox

The Black Hole Information Paradox arises from treating information as a physical entity whose preservation must be accounted for within spacetime. This paper offers a metaphysical reinterpretation rather than a physical solution. The Jestin Modal–Actuality Framework (JMAF) treats information as modal structure: the set of constraints and possibilities that determine what can be actualised. Under this ontology, the destruction of a physical medium does not constitute the destruction of information. Black holes are reinterpreted as sites where physical instantiation ends but modal structure persists. This reframing does not alter physics; it shows that the paradox is a framework dependent tension that arises only under a physicalist informational ontology. The paper provides a positive argument for modal structuralism, clarifies its ontological commitments, and demonstrates how the paradox is deflated when information is understood modally.