Unified Phase Ontology: A Phase-Based Integrative Framework for Universe, Life, Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Civilization

This paper develops a Unified Phase Ontology (UPO), a process-based metaphysical framework that interprets physical, biological, cognitive, artificial, and civilizational phenomena through the unifying concept of phase. Phase is treated not only as a physical notion but as an ontological category describing distinct dynamical regimes of organization and the coherence relations that integrate parts into wholes. UPO draws on contemporary physics, complexity science, biology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to argue that phase transitions and coherence patterns recur across scales of complexity, providing a structural basis for a unified ontology of matter, life, mind, and socio-technical systems. The framework adapts—but does not reproduce—ideas from process philosophy, emphasizing relational becoming, multi-level integration, and dynamic unity. The paper proposes phase-based order parameters, criticality, and coherence regimes as general descriptors of emergent organization, and calls for new formalisms capable of expressing cross-domain phase dynamics. UPO is offered as an integrative metaphysical scaffold connecting classical process thought with contemporary scientific and computational worldviews.