Ontogenesis of Time

The local generation of time-orders out of melting time / change-dynamics. The phrase comes from a Merleau-Ponty unpublished working note (BNF vol. VIII Notes 1958-1959 p. [253]) and is developed by Morris (2024) into a structural-physical concept: a relatively local "ontogenesis of time" is what lets us grasp a "principle of discontinuity" — a "development by leaps or crises" — in the operations of nature itself. Time-orders are not given globally as a fixed framework; they are generated locally by change-dynamics that distribute themselves as time-forms.

The concept depends on Aristotle's distinction between change and time (time as the form of change; change as time's relative matter) and on Einstein's relativization (time-form not in soul or substance, but accessed only within changing dynamic relations as clocks). Once change is conceptually distinguished from time-form, it becomes cogent that change might proceed in such a way as to not yet enable the appearing of clocks — and that change might proceed in such a way as to generate time-forms locally where none existed.

Key Points

Time-orders are generated, not given. Newton's absolute time is a fixed framework above changes; Kant's transcendental time-form is constituted by observers; block-universe timelessness denies time-generation altogether. Ontogenesis of time refuses all three: time-orders are generated locally by change-dynamics manifesting themselves as clocks.
Local, not global. This is relatively local — Morris uses "relatively local 'ontogenesis of time'" (p. 165) — meaning it occurs in restricted regions where change-dynamics distribute themselves as time-forms. Different regions can have different time-orders. (The connection to Smolin's locality-as-non-absolute and to Einstein's relativity of simultaneity.)
The conceptual lever is Aristotle's distinction. For Aristotle, time-form arises in a psyche capable of numbering motion. Morris generalizes: time-form arises in any system of changing dynamic relations whose pattern manifests itself as clocks — not just souls. Einstein extends this to physical systems generally; Morris extends it to quantum systems specifically.
Time-forming is the immanent expression of change-dynamics. Where change-dynamics distribute themselves regularly enough to manifest as clocks, time-forms emerge. Where change-dynamics are too "shuffled" to manifest as clocks, no time-form emerges within that region (the melting-time §"Achronic Cosmoi" toy model).
Empirically anchored in time-crystals. The recently demonstrated quantum systems that spontaneously break time-symmetry by oscillating at a multiple of the pump period from their immanent law are the model of ontogenesis of time. The ground-state oscillation is not driven by the pump; it is the system's internal change-dynamics distributing themselves as a time-form.

What the Concept Does

Ontogenesis of time performs three argumentative jobs:

It permits a "principle of discontinuity in nature itself." *Structure of Behaviour*'s discontinuity principle was originally observer-side (the redistribution operates via continuous physical flows; the discontinuity is in our articulation of laws). With the ontogenesis of time, the discontinuity becomes in nature: nature itself leaps, generating time-orders that were not foreordained. A "development by leaps or crises" is now in the operations of nature, not in our perception of it.
It dissolves the "delayed choice" paradox. If time-orders are generated locally by quantum systems' own change-dynamics, then the paradox that adding a second beam splitter "after" the photon has already passed the first cannot signal backward through pre-given time. There is no pre-given time to signal backward through. The system's own ontogenesis of time generates the temporal frame within which earlier-and-later are determined.
It gives "wild structure" its temporal teeth. wild-structure is the structural form; ontogenesis of time is the operation that makes wild structures wild. A structure that generates its own time-orders rather than presupposing them is wild precisely because of its ontogenesis-of-time operation.

What It Rejects

Time as substance / framework above change (Newton's absolute time).
Time-form as transcendentally constituted by observer (Kant; partly Husserl).
Block-universe timelessness (4D manifold of all events eternally present).
Time-form as merely conventional (ontogenesis is real generation, not stipulation).
Global pre-given time-order in which all physical events are situated (locality of time-generation against globality).

Stakes

If ontogenesis of time is accepted, two things change:

First, "delayed choice" and other temporal anomalies in quantum mechanics become symptoms of local time-generation, not paradoxes requiring backward-in-time signaling. The temporal anomalies are exactly what one would expect if quantum systems generate their own time-orders rather than operating within pre-given time.

Second, MP's institution is given a physical register. IP 36/7 ("time is the model of institution itself") read by Morris becomes: institution is the operation by which a temporal dimension is opened and a sequence of subsequent events made possible. Ontogenesis of time is institution at the physical-ontological level. The wiki's existing institution-as-personal-history, institution-as-cultural-history, institution-as-biological-imprinting registers gain a physics register.

The risk: ontogenesis of time depends on the conceptual distinction between change and time-form (Aristotle, Einstein) being sustainable in physics. The cellular automata thought experiments demonstrate conceptual cogency, not physical reality. Whether actual quantum systems literally generate their time-orders or whether ontogenesis of time is an interpretive frame Morris imposes on them is open.

Problem-Space

This concept articulates a problem of philosophical foundations that recurs in 20th- and 21st-century philosophy of physics: how can time be both real (against block-universe timelessness) and emergent (against substantival absolute time)? Smolin's Time Reborn (2013) is the most prominent contemporary articulation; Bergson's durée is the early-20th-century precursor; Aristotle's distinction is the ancient anchor. The recurrence under different vocabularies — Smolin's "real time but emergent space"; Bergson's "durée as concrete time"; MP's "ontogenesis of time"; Wheeler's "volcanic time"; the time-crystals literature on "time-translation symmetry breaking" — would warrant a future problem-space-tagged concept page if more sources independently articulate the problem.

Connections

generates time-orders out of melting-time — temps fondant is the indeterminate change-substrate from which ontogenesis of time generates its time-form.
is the operation of wild-structure — what makes a structure wild is its ontogenesis-of-time operation.
is figured by processioning — the temporal paysage that ontogenesis of time traces out.
grounds (per Morris) the rotation of MP's institution from personal/biological/cultural register to physical-ontological register.
converges with Smolin's "unfreezing" of space-time as background — but Smolin's framework presupposes determinate-identity monads while Morris's ontogenesis depends on indeterminate being (see imperfecting-expression for Morris's deformation of Smolin).
converges with Wheeler's "volcanic time."
grounded in Aristotle's distinction between change and time (change as time's matter; time as form of change). (Aristotle entity not yet on the wiki; flagged for future creation if multiple sources warrant.)
grounded in Einstein's relativization of time-form (clocks as immanent in dynamics, not external). (Einstein entity not yet on the wiki.)
exemplified empirically by time-crystals — the most direct empirical model of ontogenesis of time.
exemplified conceptually by cellular automata thought experiments — Conway's Life supports oscillators and Turing computers (digital clocks built within Life), modeling time-generation; modified Life rules can model achronic cosmoi (no time-generation).
contrasts with Newton's absolute time, Kant's a priori time-form, block-universe timelessness.

Open Questions

Local vs global generation. "Relatively local" — but how local? Does ontogenesis of time generate time-orders for each quantum system separately, or for spatial regions, or for the universe as a whole? Morris's article does not develop the scaling.
Relation between ontogenesis of time and Smolin's "shuffling rules." Smolin's temporal relationalism (2018) suggests that change shuffles its own rules so changes change into changes manifesting time-order. Whether Morris's ontogenesis of time is the philosophical generalization of Smolin's shuffling-rules account, or whether they are doing different work, is open.
Embryological / biological analogues. "Ontogenesis" is a biological term (the development of an individual organism from fertilization to maturity). Morris's appropriation suggests that the generation of time-orders has a structural analogy with biological development. Beith 2018's work on embryological "enjambment" and generative passivity (generative-passivity) may be the wiki's bridge between Morris's physical-ontogenesis and biological-ontogenesis registers — but Morris does not develop the analogy.
The Husserl question. Husserl's internal time-consciousness analyses are arguably an ontogenesis-of-time at the transcendental-phenomenological level. Whether Morris's physical-ontological ontogenesis is the post-transcendental successor to Husserl's analyses, or whether the two are doing different work, is not addressed in the article. (Note: Morris's article cites the V&I working note from March 1959 (V&I 235-6/185-6) on short-lived particles, which connects to MP's working notes on Husserl's time-consciousness — but the connection is not developed.)

Sources

morris-2024-wild-structure-melting-time — §1 (initial mention, p. 158, in connection with the BNF January 1959 note); §5 (full development, p. 165: "We can conceptualize this as a relatively local 'ontogenesis of time'.")
Indirect anchors via Morris:
- MP's January 1959 unpublished note on "ontogenesis of time" (BNF). Not in raw/.
- Aristotle on time and change — Roark 2011, Sentesy 2020.
- Einstein on time as accessed within dynamics — DiSalle 2006, Weatherall 2016.
- Wilczek 2019 on time-crystals as the empirical anchor.