Beyond Time I: A Proposal to Reframe the Role of Light-Speed as the Foundational Boundary of Perceived Temporality

Abstract This paper proposes a conceptual shift in our understanding of time: rather than being a fundamental dimension of the universe, time may be an emergent property arising from the light-speed boundary condition. The hypothesis posits that only objects moving below the speed of light experience sequential change—what we interpret as time—while massless particles moving at c experience none. Drawing from relativity, quantum gravity, and philosophical interpretations, this perspective challenges conventional spacetime frameworks and invites a reconsideration of time’s ontological status in physics.