trivial versus ontological possibility

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Trivial and ontological possibility distinguish familiar alternatives within an already available field from the generative potency through which fields and forms can arise. Trivial does not mean unreal: everyday options can be genuine and practically consequential. The stronger ontological claim concerns an unfinished world whose actualizations alter later conditions, extending beyond an observer’s ignorance or a menu of already constituted choices.

Explanation

RB1 contrasts choosing among ordinary options with the question of how novelty becomes possible at all. AB expressly allows that ordinary menus are real possibilities too. The distinction therefore concerns depth and explanatory role rather than dividing all practical alternatives into false shadows and all ontological language into a separate stock of miniature pre-existing objects.

A café’s closure changes actual circumstances and what can happen next. This illustrates altered constraints, but the native discussion leaves the connection between everyday possibilities and quantum potentia open. The author’s inheritance-based answer is a further philosophical proposal, not a demonstrated identity between buying coffee and a photon offer-confirmation exchange.

Kastner reserves real physical possibility for prepared or emitted quantum states, placing merely law-consistent imaginings with the conceivable. The book’s ontological use is broader, while RB3’s taxonomy uses standard law-permitted possibility for a different purpose. Keeping these registers separate prevents the stronger generative claim from being falsely credited to Kastner’s restricted terminology.

Scope and attribution

Retain linked contrasting senses without erasing the everyday alternatives’ reality.

AB — The Actual Book

Everyday alternatives remain real, with explicit philosophical broadening beyond Kastner.

Occurrence locators: 21, 22; Notes: 237.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

Ordinary choice and generative potency differ in explanatory depth; café analogy is qualified.

Occurrence locators: 66, 67, 71, 72, 74, 75; Notes: 67.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

The impossibility taxonomy’s nomological sense differs from both restricted quantum potentia and broader ontology.

Occurrence locators: 40; Notes: 40, 356.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.