3 Mass and Inertia as Consequences of Bounded Alignment Reconfiguration

Newton's second law, F = ma, is traditionally introduced as an empirical axiom: force equals mass times acceleration. This paper shows that within the retained-asymmetry framework, this relation is not assumed but recovered as the only stable proportionality compatible with bounded alignment reconfiguration and irreversible record consistency. Mass emerges as retained density—the amount of structure that must be reconfigured when motion changes. Inertia emerges as resistance to reconfiguration under finite update speed. Relativistic effects—time dilation, length contraction, and the divergence of inertial resistance near c—are shown to reflect alignment congestion: the exhaustion of internal reconfiguration capacity as velocity increases. Radiation reaction is reinterpreted as the shedding of alignment change that cannot be locally retained. Inertial frames are identified as the reference frames that minimize reconfiguration cost. Together, these results close the classical and relativistic sectors of the framework without introducing new forces or modifying established equations.