The Self-Executing Computational Universe Hypothesis (SECUH): A Conceptual Framework for an Internally Closed, Self-Executing Universe

This paper introduces the Self-Executing Computational Universe Hypothesis (SECUH), a conceptual framework that models the universe as an internally closed, self-executing informational system possessing a kernel and a minimal set of basic instructions. The framework begins from three questions—who we are, why we are, and where we are going—and asks whether these questions can be given a coherent structure without invoking an external programmer, external hardware, or an external author. SECUH proposes two conceptual primitives: Entropy(), represented as an append-only state ledger, and SelfExecute(), represented as a standing tendency toward organization and structured state evolution. Within this architecture, the observer is modeled as an internal recursive process, Observe(Self), rather than as an entity external to the physical system. Purpose is interpreted as an informational role performed by sufficiently organized, self-monitoring systems, while future trajectory is treated as substrate-neutral in principle. The present work is deliberately limited in scope. It is a conceptual and metaphysical working hypothesis, not a completed physical theory. The mappings offered for quantum measurement, entanglement, black holes, and the arrow of time are illustrative correspondences rather than derivations. No claim is made here to derive the Born rule, Bell correlations, the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy-area relation, the Page curve, general relativity, or any other established quantitative physical result. The principal research question for subsequent work is whether the proposed architecture can be formalized mathematically and, if so, whether its formal execution can reproduce known physics and generate empirically distinguishable predictions.