What Came Before the Big Bang: From Multiverse to Self-Knowing Cosmos
Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Cell Biology, Rutgers University
October 26, 2025
Part I. From the Pre-Planckian Multiverse to the Gnergitonic Universe
According to the Big Bang theory [1], galaxies began to form roughly 300–400 million years after the Big Bang. Yet the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) [2] has pushed this frontier back to ~280 million years, revealing unexpectedly mature galaxies at cosmic dawn.
These discoveries challenge current cosmology and invite a deeper question:
What existed before spacetime — before even the quantum vacuum from which inflation arose [3]?
The answer may lie in the Geometry of Reality (GOR) [4] (see Figures 1 and 2 below)— a triadic framework uniting quantum cosmology, information theory, and consciousness.
1. The Dual Structure of Reality
GOR postulates that the universe consists of two complementary parts:
Between these lies the Gnergic Universe (XY plane) [4] — the realm of energy and information, corresponding to Secondness (interaction).of Peirce [6].
Thus, the visible cosmos is the Gnergitonic expression of an invisible Multiverse substratum — as waves arise from, and return to, the ocean.
2. The Pre-Planckian Universe: The Multiverse as Pure Potentiality
Before the Big Bang, there existed no spacetime, no matter, and no causality in the sense we understand them.[1]
The Planck time (tₚ ≈ 10⁻⁴³ seconds) marks the earliest boundary where classical geometry and quantum mechanics can meaningfully coexist.
What lies before that — the Pre-Planckian Universe — is a domain beyond measurement or metric description, where the very fabric of space and time dissolves into quantum indeterminacy.
In conventional physics, this region is sometimes called the quantum foam or pre-geometric phase, where violent fluctuations of curvature make distances, durations, and even “before” and “after” meaningless.
In the Geometry of Reality (GOR), this Pre-Planckian field corresponds to the Multiverse domain, the realm of Firstness in Peirce’s triadic logic [6] — pure potentiality prior to differentiation into energy (X), information (Y), and meaning (Z).
Here, existence itself is a sea of possibilities — what might be called the gnergitonic vacuum.
Within this vacuum, the IRVSE process (Iterative Reproduction with Variations and Selection by Environment) operates as the cosmic generative mechanism:
tiny quantum fluctuations (iteration) reproduce and vary endlessly until a stable configuration (selection) emerges — one capable of self-amplifying into spacetime itself.
Thus, the Big Bang was not the absolute origin of being but a transition — a thermodynamic and informational bifurcation — in which the Multiverse’s infinite potential condensed into a single coherent reality.
The Pre-Planckian Universe therefore represents the source code of existence, a formless yet fertile domain from which the Gnergic Universe (energy + information) and later the Gnergitonic Universe (energy + information + consciousness) emerged through self-selection.
In this light, cosmic creation is not a singular event but an ongoing process of self-organization, continually replaying the Pre-Planckian dynamics at every scale — from quantum genesis to biological evolution and human consciousness.
3. The Gnergy Principle of Organization (GPO)
All organization requires both energy (to do work) and information (to control work).[8]
This Gnergy Principle of Organization applies from molecular biology to cosmology.
Every creative act demands an energy flow coordinated by an informational blueprint.
At the largest scale, the transition from the Multiverse to the Gnergitonic Universe — the Big Bang — can be seen as thermodynamic work:
energy dissipated as heat under the control of cosmological information, mirroring how a quantum wavefunction collapses when fast quantum processes couple to slower environmental reconfigurations at the saddle point of a mixed-curvature surface.
Creation, in this view, is cosmic work performed by cosmic information.
4. IRVSE as the Engine of Cosmic Evolution
IRVSE (Iterative Reproduction with Variation and Selection by Environment) (see Figure 2 above) describes how order emerges from potentiality:
Thus IRVSE expresses the universal algorithm of creation — from atoms to galaxies, genes to minds.
5. The Gnergic Wave Function of the Universe
Quantum cosmology represents the universe by a wave function Ψ obeying the Wheeler–DeWitt equation (ĤΨ = 0) [9].
GOR interprets Ψ as a gnergic function:
where E is energy and I is information.
The collapse of Ψ corresponds to the Selection phase of IRVSE — the transformation of potential into actuality.
6. From Potential to Self-Knowing
This triadic ascent mirrors Peirce’s logic — being → becoming → knowing.
**Part II. The James Webb Space Telescope Images:
1. Scientific and Philosophical Interpretation**
The James Webb Space Telescope extends not only our vision of the cosmos but our imagination of its origins.
Each infrared vista reveals not chaos but coordination — the same triadic order found in linguistics, biology, and consciousness.
In the Geometry of Reality,
the X-axis represents energy and matter,
the Y-axis represents information and communication, and
the Z-axis represents selection, meaning, and consciousness.
Together they form the gnergitonic volume of existence.
2..The Cosmic Imagination
Viewed through IRVSE, JWST’s deep fields reveal cosmic self-organization:
galaxies iteratively reproduce structures, vary through gravitational dynamics, and undergo selection by environmental context — gravitational, chemical, and quantum.
This triadic dance precedes biology yet echoes life’s logic.
The universe itself appears to practice IRVSE long before DNA.
Hence, the Big Bang was not an absolute beginning but a transition — a bifurcation within an eternal IRVSE cycle.
The JWST images are not mere snapshots of a distant past but living hieroglyphs of cosmic semiosis, where energy becomes information, and information becomes consciousness.
Each nebula, galaxy, and filament is a word in the universal language of cosmese — the same language spoken by cells (cellese) and minds (humanese).
Through JWST, we glimpse the handwriting of the cosmos — a triadic script of energy, information, and meaning.
3. Closing Reflection
The Geometry of Reality unites quantum cosmology, evolutionary dynamics, and Peircean semiotics into one generative geometry.
Meaning is not an afterthought of matter but the final coordinate of Reality — the Z-axis through which the universe selects itself into being.
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” — Percy Bysshe Shelley [11]
Likewise, if Potentiality (the Multiverse) exists, can Self-Knowing (the Gnergitonic Universe) be far behind? See the legend to Figure 1 above.
References:
[1] Big Bang. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
[2] James Webb Space Telescope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
[3] Cosmic inflation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation
[4] Ji, S. (2025). The Geometry of Reality (GOR): A Triadic Framework for Matter, Mind, and Spirit.
https://622622.substack.com/p/geometry-of-reality
[5] Multiverse.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
[6] Semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotic_theory_of_Charles_Sanders_Peirce
[7] Self-organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization
[8] S. (2018). The Gnergy Principle of Organization. In: The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter. World Scientific Publishing, New Jersey. Pp. 33-34.
[9] Ji, S. (2025). Self-Organization as the Ultimate Variational Principle of Nature https://622622.substack.com/p/self-organization-as-the-ultimate
[10] Wheeler-DeWitt equation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler%E2%80%93DeWitt_equation
[11] Shelley, P. B. https://fixquotes.com/photo/quotes1200/o-wind-if-winter-comes-can-spring-be-far-behind-101517-40433.webp