To Infer Is to Exist: Consciousness as Processual Structure in Entropy Fields

This paper develops a processual and structural ontology, grounded in the Free Energy Principle (Friston, 2010) and entropy dynamics. It addresses a key gap in theories of consciousness, by formalising how structurally viable inference gives rise to phenomenology within an entropy field. Through a synthesis of Ontic Structural Realism (OSR) and Process Ontology (PO), we posit that this occurs via relational co-emergence, where the realness of a processual structure is given by inferences within a relational field. These dynamics are formalised and modelled via core mechanisms centred on inferencing across entropy gradients, which involves how active inference (Friston et al., 2015) functions as agent-state coupling within an entropy gradient. Consciousness is thereby modelled as non-substantial but a mode of structurally sustained inference, where qualia are enacted structurally rather than contained intrinsically. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on birth, death and liminal phenomena by framing them across a continuum. Significantly, these are conceptualised as boundary conditions within an entropy and inferential field, where inference is not merely an epistemic description but the ontological condition of persistence.