Toward a Unified Ontology of Structure and Meaning: Cosmological Gradients, Symbolic Communication, and Biological Mass Formation

This article develops a unified ontological framework in which gradients—cosmological, biological, and semiotic—constitute the fundamental operators of structure and meaning. I argue that the universe’s first differentiating event establishes a cosmological gradient field that grounds all subsequent organization, from physical asymmetries to the emergence of living systems. Within this field, biological entities arise as mass‑forming gradient resolvers, generating interiority, agency, and self‑maintaining identity through continuous resolution of environmental differences. Building on this, I introduce a general architecture of symbolic communication in which meaning is not an interpretive overlay but a structural consequence of gradient‑based organization. The result is a single ontological model linking cosmological structure, biological formation, and symbolic behavior under one processual principle. This unified ontology challenges substance‑based metaphysics, reframes the origin of life and communication, and offers a new foundation for understanding agency, responsibility, and the evolution of organized interiority.