Radiation-First and the Principle of Waiting Time: A white paper

This White Paper outlines the conceptual foundations of Radiation-First Ontology (RFO), a process-based framework in which radiative closure - rather than spacetime geometry or material persistence - is taken as the primitive act of existence. Reality unfolds through finite generative intervals, or waiting times (τ_w≥0), during which lawful potentials become actual events. In this ontology, radiation precedes matter: emission and absorption define the fundamental events from which worldlines and geometry arise as records. RFO provides a coherent structure, denoted F–N–W, linking three domains of reality: (1) the lawful potential field F(s); (2) the generative layer N, where null connections are closed; and (3) the recorded world W(s), the fixed archive of realized events. Time corresponds to the ordered succession of closures within N. The Principle of Waiting Time replaces “evolution in time” with “realization through waiting.” This generative interval grounds the arrow of time, reconciles quantum indeterminacy with relativistic invariance, and provides a new truthmaker for temporal becoming. The paper ends with testable implications and outlines the first research agenda for the Radiation-First programme.