Photons, Electrons, and the Birth of the Cosmos: A Relational-Ontological Re-Reading of Particle Formation

Introduction: From Potential to Cosmos

In the horizon/metabolic/ecological model of relational ontology, the cosmos begins not with objects or substances, but with potential—a readiness-to-actualise.

This readiness already contains three distinguishable modes:

• Readiness: the poised inclination toward doing

• Inclination: the patterned leaning of the horizon

• Ability: the metabolic capacity to stabilise doing over time

These modes become particularly powerful when applied to cosmic origins, offering an alternative to the object-first metaphysics that still shapes much scientific discourse. Instead of matter assembling itself, the early universe becomes a story of how potential differentiates itself into ecological pathways and metabolic stabilities.

This differentiation naturally distinguishes two central actors of modern physics:

• photons — ecological pathways of inclination

• electrons — metabolic stabilisations of readiness

These are not two species of particle, but two expressions of the same primordial potential.

---

1. The Pre-Stabilisation Era: A Pure Horizon of Readiness

Before anything resembling a particle exists, the cosmos is best construed as a global readiness field—a horizon with no local stabilisations.

Nothing is yet individuated.

Nothing persists.

Nothing propagates through space, because space itself is not yet patterned by stabilised stances.

In this initial phase:

• There are no metabolic loops

• There are no ecological pathways

• There are only horizon-level inclinations shifting in intensity

Cosmic “fields” in this account are not entities; they are spans of inclination, traces of how potential can lean without yet stabilising into any enduring form.

This pre-stabilised horizon sets the stage for the first true event of cosmic individuation.

---

2. The First Metabolic Actualisations: Electrons as Stances of Stabilised Readiness

The emergence of electrons marks the cosmos’s first major turn:

the stabilisation of local metabolic readiness loops.

Rather than treating an electron as a point-like object with properties, this model interprets it as:

• a rhythmic, internally coherent stance

• a loop of readiness that can maintain itself

• a region of potential that has achieved persistence

“Charge” in this reading is not a property, but the asymmetry of inclination needed for this readiness-loop to stay coherent across contexts.

The electron is the cosmos’s first act of self-maintenance.

This marks a shift from a universe defined only by horizon-level inclination to one with emergent metabolic entities, each sustaining their own stance within the relational fabric.

---

3. The Emergence of Ecological Pathways: Photons as Propagating Inclination

When a metabolic stance (such as an electron) can no longer contain all of its readiness internally, part of that readiness unfolds outward.

This unfolding is not emission in the classical sense; it is the conversion of a local metabolic surplus into an ecological pathway of inclination.

The photon is thus:

• not a particle

• not a travelling object

• not a tiny bundle of energy

but a propagating transformation of inclination that reconfigures the relational space between metabolic stances.

Where electrons persist, photons connect.

Photons:

• widen the horizon of what can happen between regions

• carry inclination across relational space

• shape the ecological texture through which metabolic entities coordinate

In this model, light is not illumination;

light is ecology.

---

4. Entanglement Revisited: Shared Inclination Without Separation

Once both metabolic stances (electrons) and ecological pathways (photons) appear, new composite structures become possible.

Among them is entanglement.

When two metabolic stances exchange readiness through a common ecological pathway, the resulting inclination cannot be factored into separate contributions.

The pathway does not run “between” them:

it is the relational coherence that spans them.

Thus:

• entanglement is not mysterious correlation

• it is not a hidden signal

• it is not “nonlocal behaviour”

Entanglement is simply the indivisibility of ecological inclination across a horizon newly populated by stabilised metabolic stances.

It is the valley-wind that flows with one shape across two valleys.

---

5. Cosmic Evolution as Differentiation of Potential

This horizon–metabolic–ecological triad supports a new reading of cosmic evolution, free from substance metaphysics.

5.1. Horizon Era: pure readiness

Fluctuating inclinations, no local persistence.

5.2. Metabolic Emergence: electrons and quarks

Stances stabilise; rhythmic readiness-loops appear.

5.3. Ecological Intensification: photons

Inclinations propagate; the first relational ecologies form.

5.4. Composite Metabolic Structures: nuclei and atoms

Stances couple; stabilising rhythms build complexity.

5.5. Macro-Ecological Expansion: galaxies, filaments, voids

Patterns of inclination propagate across cosmic scales.

At every stage, the cosmos is not building objects but diversifying readiness and structuring inclination.

---

Conclusion: Particles as Modes, Not Things

The distinction between photons and electrons is not a taxonomic difference but a functional differentiation in how potential actualises:

• photons: ecological propagation of inclination

• electrons: metabolic stabilisation of readiness

This reframes particle physics not as the study of fundamental objects but as the study of relational modes of the cosmos’s unfolding.

By viewing cosmic origins through this lens, the universe becomes legible as the gradual articulation of potential—an ongoing negotiation between horizon, metabolism, and ecology.