Methodology: Ontological-Discreteness Proof Obligation

Proposes the Ontological-Discreteness Proof Obligation: whoever claims that 'the universe is, at the ontological level, a discrete computational system' must prove that its discreteness is not an artifact of the representation — of measurement, coordinates, a quantized spectrum, or a computational interface — but a structural invariant that cannot be eliminated under any lossless, equivalent representation. Distinguishes four non-equivalent claims — computability, digital representability, exact simulability, and constituting the ontology itself — and lists a five-step proof obligation (exact encoding, exact reconstruction, dynamical conjugacy, invariant preservation, essential discreteness). Also rejects the reverse smuggling move: failing to find essential discreteness does not imply the world must be continuous, so the legitimate epistemic states are at least four — continuous, discrete, mixed, and unknown.