1 The Universe Between Two Horizons
In this new series, we explore the universe not as a collection of things, but as a dynamic field of meaning bounded by two perspectival horizons: one at the pole of potential, the other at the pole of event. Each marks a limit of construal—not a limit of reality as such, but a limit of what can be construed as reality.
The Big Bang as the Edge of Theory
In classical cosmology, the Big Bang is often imagined as a moment in time—a singular event in the distant past from which the universe "emerged." But in our relational ontology, time is not a container, and the universe is not a sequence of happenings within it. Instead, the Big Bang marks a boundary condition: the outermost edge of what can be theorised as potential.
In the same way that a linguist builds a grammar from observed texts, or a climatologist theorises climate from weather, the cosmologist theorises a structured system—space–time, matter, energy—from the events it makes possible. The Big Bang is the limit condition of that system: the necessary assumption that grounds any possible event, even though no event can directly instantiate it.
It is not before time—it is what makes time construable.
The Event Horizon as the Edge of Instance
At the other end lies the event horizon of a black hole. This is not a mysterious surface where things disappear—it is the outer limit of relational construal. From our position in the universe, nothing that crosses an event horizon can be related to us again. No signal escapes; no difference can be registered. It is not that meaning is destroyed—it is that meaning can no longer be made from here.
In relational terms, the event horizon is a cut in the field of relation. Beyond it, construal becomes impossible. It is the disappearance of the instance from our field of co-instantiation.
We Live Between the Horizons
Between these two horizons—the edge of theory and the edge of event—lies the field of the knowable. This is not a static region, but a semiotic space: a space of unfolding relation, differentiation, and construal. Every act of knowing takes place here. Every observation, every utterance, every thought.
To say we live “between” the Big Bang and the event horizon is to say:
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We exist within a system of potential that we can only partially theorise
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We participate in events whose instances we can only partially construe
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We are always located within the field of meaning—not beyond it
This is not a position of epistemic defeat. It is a condition of meaningful life.
Two Limits, One Semiotic Field
The Big Bang and the event horizon are not opposite in kind. They are complementary limits—each necessary for the construal of a relational universe.
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The Big Bang marks the necessary coherence of the system—it holds everything together as potential.
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The event horizon marks the necessary incompleteness of instantiation—it opens the field to differential relation.
They are the outer faces of a system that is reflexive, recursive, and perspectival.
What This Series Will Explore
In the posts to come, we’ll examine these two horizons more closely—and the space between them. We’ll ask:
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What does it mean to theorise a universe that can’t instantiate its own boundary?
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How does the presence of an event horizon change what we mean by “event”?
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Can the speed of light be understood as the semiotic medium that separates these poles?
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How do cosmological models reflect our own position within the field they attempt to describe?
Each question points not outward to the cosmos as “object,” but inward to the cosmos as meaning—as a system construed by and within perspective.
2 The Big Bang Is Not a Moment
In the mainstream view, the Big Bang is a temporal origin—a “beginning” before which there was nothing. But this view is riddled with paradoxes: What came before time? How can something emerge from nothing? Why is the universe ordered?
The System Pole of the Universe
In systemic linguistics, the system pole is the theorised system from which meanings can be instantiated. It is not prior in time to a sentence—it is its enabling potential. Language unfolds in time, but the system is not in time. It is the structured coherence that makes meaning possible.
The Big Bang serves this role at the cosmological scale.
It functions as the theory of the universe:
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It constrains what kinds of spacetime configurations are possible
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It structures the potentials that later instantiate as matter, energy, relation, and change
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It is the grammar of the cosmos, not a line in its narrative
Why “Before the Big Bang” Makes No Sense
If the Big Bang is the system pole, then there is no “before” it—not because it happened at time zero, but because time itself is a product of the system.
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Time is not a container.
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It is a relational orientation that emerges when potential is instantiated.
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The system pole does not exist in time; it makes time construable.
So asking what happened “before” the Big Bang is like asking what happens before grammar makes words possible. The question presupposes the very system it tries to precede.
Constraining the Universe as a System
To theorise the universe is to construe it as a system of potential—just as we construe language or music or biology. In this view, the Big Bang functions as the system’s outermost constraint:
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It sets the symmetry conditions that later break
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It defines the vacuum from which differentiation emerges
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It holds open the space for relation to unfold
It is the field in which coherence can be realised, and the cut from which all perspective becomes possible.
The Cut from Potential to Instance
Why This Matters
By re-reading the Big Bang as the system pole of the universe, we:
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Reframe cosmology as a mode of meaning-making
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Dissolve false origin myths in favour of systemic constraint
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Recognise that our models are not time machines, but grammars of construal
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Open space for agency, perspective, and variation within a structured field
And every construal we make—every observation, every theory—is a differentiation from that potential.
3 The Event Horizon Is Not a Place
In the popular imagination, the event horizon of a black hole is a kind of “place”—a boundary line in space that, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed.
But in our ontology, this is a profound misreading.
What Is an Event Horizon?
In physics, the event horizon is the threshold beyond which no signal can reach an outside observer. It’s the boundary of a black hole: anything that crosses it, even light, cannot return.
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It is not a physical surface you can touch
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It is not the same for all observers
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It is not part of a single universal now
The event horizon emerges as a cut in the field of possible relation.
It is the limit at which perspective fails to instantiate further meaning.
Instance Without Relatability
In our ontology, meaning arises when a system construes part of itself in relation to another part—when potential is instantiated as perspective.
But the event horizon marks the threshold beyond which no construal is possible.
This means:
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Not that nothing happens past the event horizon
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But that nothing can be construed from outside
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That is: no instance can be co-instantiated with the external field
The Mirror of the Big Bang
In this view, the Big Bang and the event horizon are structural complements:
| Big Bang | Event Horizon |
|---|---|
| The outermost system pole | The innermost instance pole |
| The condition for construal | The boundary of construal |
| The theorised potential | The unrelatable event |
| The limit of meaning’s possibility | The edge of meaning’s intelligibility |
Together, they define the field of possible meaning.
Not a Veil, but a Fold
We must not think of the event horizon as a wall behind which reality hides.
It is not a veil.
It is a fold in the fabric of construal—a topological kink in the semiotic space, beyond which perspective cannot reach.
There is no meaning where construal cannot reach.
The Collapse of System into Instance
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It is not just that meaning ends there
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It is that system itself cannot remain open
Why This Matters
4 Living Between Horizons
Between the Big Bang and the event horizon,
we live.
Between the limit of what can be theorised
and the limit of what can be instantiated,
meaning unfolds.
This is not a metaphor.
It is the structure of our universe as construed by consciousness.
A Universe Between Poles
In our ontology, the cosmos is not a container of things,
but a field of relation.
Every event is an instance of potential.
Every perspective is a construal of structure.
But this field is bounded.
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On one end, the Big Bang marks the outer system pole:
the grounding condition for relation—the structured potential from which all construal emerges. -
On the other, the event horizon marks the inner limit of instance:
the point where relation collapses, and further construal becomes impossible.
These poles are not moments in time.
They are limits of theorising.
They define what meaning can be.
We Are Never Outside
Between these poles, there is no neutral stance.
There is no view from nowhere.
There is only perspective—structured, constrained, unfolding.
Every construal is an act within the system.
We do not map the universe from the outside.
We live inside its unfolding
—as agents of relation
—as participants in meaning
—as instances within the system we theorise.
The system pole makes meaning possible.
The instance pole makes meaning actual.
Time, Light, and Meaning
Light connects these poles.
It is the semiotic tether between what can be related and what can be realised.
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It bounds what can be seen
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It conditions what can be known
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It structures what can be synchronised
We never access the now of elsewhere.
Only the delayed construal of relation—
the shimmer of past light stitched into present perspective.
Time, then, is not a flow from origin to collapse.
It is an orientation within constraint.
It is how meaning holds itself open
between the edge of theory and the edge of event.
Horizon as Condition, Not Limit
We often speak of “pushing the boundaries” of knowledge,
as if meaning were a territory to be expanded.
But the horizon is not a wall.
It is a condition.
The Big Bang is not behind us.
It is beneath us—
the patterned potential that makes relation possible.
The event horizon is not in front of us.
It is within us—
the ever-present limit of what can be co-instantiated,
what can be meant.
Meaning is always made between these poles.
Not despite the constraints—
but because of them.
Living the Cut
To live between the Big Bang and the black hole
is to live within the cut between theory and event.
Every moment:
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A construal of potential
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A structuring of relation
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A local realisation of cosmic grammar
We are not observers of a universe.
We are the universe, theorising itself through perspective.
And in that theorising,
we hold the system open.
We prevent the collapse of all relation into singularity.
We live the field
—and the field lives through us.
What Comes Next?
We began with a question:
What happens at the edge of theorising?
We now see that this edge is not where meaning ends.
It is where meaning begins.
It is where constraint makes creation possible.
Where system and instance meet
in a universe that is both theorised and real.
Our next arc will explore what this means for us:
As persons, cultures, and systems of meaning.
Because if the universe construes itself through us—
then every act of thought is cosmological.
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