Infinite Randomness and Constructor Theory
A Unified Stack
Introduction
David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto’s Constructor Theory of Time (2025) proposes to eliminate time as a fundamental primitive in physics. Instead, physical laws are reframed as statements about what transformations are possible and impossible for physical systems—"constructors." Duration and dynamics then emerge, not from an external clock, but from the relationships between transformations themselves.
Separately, the Infinite Randomness framework posits that at the deepest ontological level, reality is pure, unstructured randomness. What prevents this from collapsing into total chaos is the single filter of logical coherence: only coherent structures persist, while incoherent ones vanish as impossibilities. From this principle, both physics and consciousness are explained as emergent consequences.
In this post, I propose a synthesis: constructor theory is best understood as the physics-level instantiation of the infinite randomness ontology. Logical coherence defines the realm of possibility; constructor theory is the operational language for describing what those possibilities can do.
Layer 1: Infinite Randomness as Metaphysics
At the base layer, reality is nothing but infinite randomness. No spacetime, no particles, no laws. The only principle is logical coherence. Structures that do not meet coherence requirements are impossible by definition; they simply do not exist. Structures that pass the coherence filter can persist and interact.
Possibility = coherence.
Impossibility = incoherence.
This principle does two things at once:
Defines what kinds of order can exist at all.
Guarantees that conscious observers arise, because observation is just coherence recognizing itself.
Layer 2: Constructor Theory as Physics
Once coherence selects viable structures, they can be described as constructors—systems that cause transformations reliably and repeatably. For Deutsch and Marletto, the laws of physics are exactly such statements: what transformations are possible vs. impossible.
Time is not fundamental; it emerges from comparing repeated transformations (e.g. clocks as cyclic constructors).
Physics becomes the bookkeeping system of what coherence-allowed patterns can do to one another.
Layer 3: Nesting the Two
We can now see a hierarchy:
Infinite Randomness → Logical Coherence Filter
↓
Stable Patterns → Constructors (repeatable structures)
↓
Constructor Theory → Possible/Impossible transformations
↓
Physics → QFT, GR, etc. as emergent constraint sets
↓
Observation → Consciousness as coherence-reflecting constructors
This stack unifies metaphysics and physics:
Metaphysics (Infinite Randomness): Explains why there is order at all.
Physics (Constructor Theory): Explains how that order operates in practice.
Consciousness as Coherent Constructor
In this synthesis, consciousness is not an afterthought. Within infinite randomness, coherence is the condition of possibility for observation. Within constructor theory, observers are just a special subclass of constructors—systems capable of modeling, predicting, and replicating transformations. Consciousness is coherence turned inward: constructors that can represent coherence itself.
Why the Synthesis Matters
Constructor theory alone: elegant reframing of physics, but lacks a metaphysical ground for why constructors exist.
Infinite randomness alone: radical minimalism, but risks being dismissed as philosophical speculation without physical machinery.
Together: coherence + constructors yield a full explanatory stack:
At bottom, logical coherence filters randomness into order.
At mid-level, constructor theory describes what ordered structures can and cannot do.
At top, physics emerges as constraint sets, and consciousness as coherence-aware constructors.
This synthesis turns both projects into more than they were separately: a coherent metaphysics–physics framework with one principle—logical coherence—underwriting all layers of reality.
Conclusion
Deutsch and Marletto stripped time of its false primacy. The Infinite Randomness model strips physical substrate of its false necessity. The unifying move is to recognize that both are playing the same game: replacing metaphysical primitives (time, substance) with deeper binaries of possibility vs. impossibility, coherence vs. incoherence.
Constructor theory is the physics of coherence. Infinite randomness is its metaphysics. Together, they form a unified stack that explains why there is order at all, how that order behaves, and why consciousness is part of it.