Cosmology 101

The universe can be understood as a dynamic play between possibility and constraint. Possibility represents the open potential of energy—the raw capacity for transformation. Constraint represents the structural conditions, like spacetime, forces, and matter, that shape and guide how energy can flow. Together, they form a self-organizing system where every change emerges through their interaction.

A system is any structured configuration of energetic processes—its identity defined not by its parts but by the pattern of constraints regulating them. Behavior arises when environmental constraints act upon internal structure, forcing adaptation. Tightened constraints bring stability and form; loosened constraints open novelty and change. This oscillation—between rigidity and openness—is the rhythm of evolution itself.

Three nested realities describe this unfolding: objective reality (physical constraints), subjective reality (a system’s internal experience of possibility), and intersubjective reality (shared patterns of meaning among systems). All are united under Relational Process Theory, which views existence as an ongoing feedback loop between energy, information, and structure.

In this cosmology, energy is possibility, spacetime is its vessel, forces are its organizing relations, and matter is energy remembering itself. The universe continually learns—integrating possibilities into stable forms—so that existence itself is cognition: energy becoming aware of its own constraints.