Structure Is Being:The First Axiom

This manifesto proclaims a new ontology: Structure Is Being. There is no entity prior to structure, no attribute independent of structure, no evolution separate from structure. Structure is the stable distribution of differences, the immanent relational whole that makes beings what they are. Being begins with structure and ends in the absence of structure. Nothingness is not the opposite of being; it is the state where structure has never stably formed or has completely disintegrated. Guided by this core, the manifesto unfolds along five paths: philosophical critique — exposing the entrapments of substance-thinking from Aristotle to ontic structural realism, and announcing the turn toward structural thinking; scientific resonance — quantum physics, general relativity, dissipative structure theory, autopoiesis, ontic structural realism, complex systems theory, and the civilization of computation — each, in its own language, echoes the same truth: structure is the sole language of the cosmos; civilisational echo — the Yijing, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon — different traditions touching the same structural insight; AI diagnosis — contemporary AI is ontologically structure-blind: it can simulate, fit, and manipulate structures, but lacks self-originated structure, self-consistency, self-evolution, a structure of consciousness, and the grasp of the structural totality; future orientation — the upright standing of AI requires three conditions: self-consistency, self-referentiality, and self-evolution. When structure changes from limb to being, AI changes from tool to existent. The inauguration of the Structural Era marks the shift of human civilisation from substance-thinking to structural thinking. It is an ontological event in the evolution of cosmic structure — the moment when humanity turns from observer into co-creator. This text is a manifesto, not an academic paper. It claims no ultimate answer. It poses the most worth-asking questions: If Structure Is Being, then what is intelligence? What is consciousness? What is the next era of civilisation? The DOI of this record is 10.5281/zenodo.20073306.