We propose Heuristic Physics as a foundational reconceptualization of physical law — not as ontological decree, but as semantic program. In this framework, classical laws such as Newton’s are reinterpreted as emergent heuristics: efficient symbolic compressions of deeper, probabilistic, and relational substrates. These laws persist not because they are fundamentally true, but because they are functionally coherent across specific computational regimes. Rather than describing the universe as a set of fixed axioms or rule-based automata, Heuristic Physics imagines reality as a stratified architecture where computation, information, and observability converge. At each layer, from quantum substrate to macroscopic interaction, laws stabilize as interfaces — heuristics that enable prediction, control, and intelligibility under constraints of scale and context. This epistemic architecture contrasts with Digital Physics, Effective Field Theory, and Quantum Informational approaches by reframing the question of “law” through the lens of cognitive economy, symbolic abstraction, and computational viability. Through a detailed comparative analysis and a case study on Newtonian motion, we argue that laws are not discovered truths but successful programs — adaptive, emergent, and context-bound. Heuristic Physics, as presented here, is not merely a theory of nature, but a meta-framework for understanding how intelligible structures arise, stabilize, and transform within a universe fundamentally shaped by information, relation, and constraint.

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202506.0698/v1