A Gateway to HDD and HDO Context and Orientation

This document is an entry point to a two-layer research programme. HDD (History-Dependent Dynamics) is a methodological framework for distinguishing kinds of history dependence in any system. HDO (History-Dependent Ontology) is a philosophical interpretation of what that history means. HDD can be used without HDO; HDO cannot be used without HDD. What the document does. It provides a short "Start here" orientation, traces how the project moved from an earlier ontology (Informational-Processual Monism, IPM) to a methodological programme (HDD), states the five HDD constructs (C-I through C-V) and the inferential prohibition that separates them, describes the three domain companions (HDD-ISA, HDD-ESA, HDD-BIO) plus the Ethical Framework and the unified computational study, and states HDO's central claim and the Bridge Principle that governs its relation to HDD. It records the framework's context (five contemporary interlocutors), its methodological caveat about circularity in simulation-grounded ontology, and the explicit falsification conditions for HDD, HDO, and SHOP-D. What the document does not claim. It does not claim that any HDD construct is evidence of consciousness. It does not claim that HDO is proven. It does not claim that the framework has been empirically validated as a whole — the synthetic benchmark is a proof of concept, not evidence of generalization. The relation between HDD and HDO is abductive, not deductive. HDD's methodological neutrality toward ontology is deliberate and permanent: a researcher may reject HDO entirely and still use HDD. Intended audience. Readers arriving at the project for the first time who want to know where to begin, and readers already familiar with one document who want to see how the pieces fit together. The "Start here" section is designed to be read in five minutes; the rest of the document is context and orientation.