Relational Substrate Hypothesis

This paper presents the Relational Substrate Hypothesis (RSH) as a standalone synthesis and follow-up to the completed six-paper relational primacy series. It consolidates the framework's central ontological reversal — that relations are prior to objects, and that apparent objects are scale-bound compressions of relational closures — into a single reusable statement. Drawing on category theory, gauge structure, holonomy, causal set theory, standing-wave mechanics, and Ubuntu's social ontology, the paper gathers the highest-value recurring structure from the wider project into one portable base from which future derivations can proceed. It is not a numbered successor in the original sequence but a companion synthesis intended to support subsequent work in philosophy of physics, systems design, ethics, privacy, and personhood. This preprint has not undergone formal peer review. The author made use of AI language models at various stages of research and writing, including Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), ChatGPT (OpenAI), and NotebookLM (Google), in capacities including literature exploration, brainstorming, structural feedback, drafting, and verification. All claims, framings, interpretations, and conclusions remain the sole responsibility of the author.