Time, Determinacy, and the Asymmetry of Constraint

This paper argues that time is not an independent dimension or container, but the structural asymmetry between determinate and indeterminate constraint relations within systems that persist through mediation. Building on prior analysis of distinctness, tension, mediation, and persistence, it is shown that the resolution of incompatible constraints produces determinate structure, which is retained through persistence. In contrast, further constraint relations remain unresolved relative to that structure. This yields an asymmetry between what is fixed and what is not yet fixed. It is argued that this asymmetry is not contingent but follows necessarily from the conditions of persistence under constraint. The distinction between past and future is therefore identical to the distinction between determinate and indeterminate constraint relations. Time, on this account, is the ordered transition from indeterminacy to determinacy and does not require positing any additional temporal ontology.