The Spiral Genesis of Consciousness:
A Cosmological Model of Pre-Conceptual Cognitive Emergence
Abstract
This paper presents a speculative yet grounded theoretical model of early human consciousness as a cosmological event—a “Big Bang” of subjectivity—framed through the lens of theoretical cognitive science, phenomenology, and systems theory. Drawing a deep analogy between cosmic evolution and the emergence of awareness in early hominins, the paper argues that consciousness did not appear all at once nor within a binary logic structure, but arose gradually as a field of salience, valence, and affective intensities—structured not by symbols or concepts, but by a spectrum-based logic grounded in embodied experience. The model emphasizes the pre-conceptual role of the prefrontal cortex, the temporality of awareness, and the ongoing “spiraling” expansion of consciousness as a complex system akin to the unfolding universe.
1. Introduction: Consciousness as an Event
In modern cognitive science, the emergence of consciousness is often approached either reductively through neurobiological correlates or abstractly through philosophy of mind. This paper proposes a third path: a cosmological analogy, treating the emergence of human consciousness as a kind of cognitive Big Bang—a moment in evolutionary history not when consciousness "began," but when experience itself became structured, stable, and self-reflective.
This model resists common assumptions:
That early humans thought like we do.
That awareness is a binary (on/off) phenomenon.
That logic and morality preceded perception or salience.
Instead, it proposes that early consciousness emerged gradually, following a non-binary logic of experiential intensities, and has been unfolding ever since, much like the cosmic fabric of space-time.
2. The Cosmological Analogy
2.1 Pre-Big Bang: Quantum Foam and Cognitive Potential
In cosmology, the quantum foam refers to a theorized chaotic, fluctuating pre-space state from which the Big Bang emerged. No classical time, no space—just quantum uncertainty.
In cognitive terms, this maps onto a pre-conscious neurobiological substrate:
Chaotic, sub-symbolic neural activations
Affective systems firing without integrated awareness
A body reacting, moving, surviving, without a stable "present"
We can imagine early hominins existing in this pre-experiential flux—their brains active, but their world not yet appearing.
Sources:
Greene, B. The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004)
Thompson, E. Mind in Life (2007)
Panksepp, J. Affective Neuroscience (1998)
2.2 The Big Bang: Ignition of the “Now”
The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion in space—it was the birth of space-time itself.
Likewise, the “ignition moment” of consciousness is not the birth of thought, but the birth of awareness-as-time: the rendering of the now moment by the prefrontal cortex, which allows for temporally integrated perception and salience tracking.
This is the origin of experiential time—what William James called the “specious present” (James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890).
The ignition point may involve:
Neural synchrony across sensory, emotional, and prefrontal networks (Damasio, 1999)
A sudden field-like coherence—a brain state where incoming stimuli are experienced as a whole (Tononi, 2008)
The first flicker of subjectivity—not a self, but the world beginning to appear
2.3 Inflation: The Rapid Expansion of Awareness
In cosmology, inflation is the near-instantaneous expansion of the universe shortly after the Big Bang. It smooths out irregularities and generates the conditions for matter to coalesce.
In consciousness:
The early ignition of awareness leads to rapid expansion of perceptual fields
Sensory modalities begin to bind together into unified percepts (a precursor to multisensory integration)
Attention and memory form primitive loops of salience—“this is now,” “this matters,” “this reoccurs”
This is not cognition as computation—this is cognition as coherence, affect, and emergent form.
Sources:
Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. The Embodied Mind (1991)
Damasio, A. The Feeling of What Happens (1999)
Llinás, R. I of the Vortex (2001)
2.4 Expansion Slows: Structures Form
Just as the universe's expansion slowed and galaxies began to coalesce, early consciousness began to consolidate structures:
Basic episodic memory (Tulving, 1985)
Environmental affordances (Gibson, 1979)
Proto-self structures (Damasio, 1999)
Here, we see the early scaffolding of identity, but still without language, morality, or abstract thought. The logic of experience remains:
Spectral, not binary
Affective, not conceptual
Situated, not symbolic
3. Spectrum Logic: The Pre-Conceptual Cognitive Architecture
Whereas modern human thought relies heavily on binary distinctions (true/false, right/wrong), early hominid consciousness was likely governed by a gradient-based logic. Three foundational modes likely shaped all responses:
Attraction: Approach, curiosity, comfort
Neutrality: No reaction, indifference
Repulsion: Withdrawal, danger, discomfort
This triadic logic corresponds more with valence (Feldman Barrett, 2017) than with judgment. It is energetic, not ethical.
There is no morality here. No truth or fiction. Only the intensity of sensation and its directionality in the embodied field.
Sources:
Barrett, L. F. How Emotions Are Made (2017)
Panksepp, J. Affective Neuroscience (1998)
Merleau-Ponty, M. Phenomenology of Perception (1945)
4. The Role of the Prefrontal Cortex: Architect of Time
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) emerges late in evolution, and even later in development. Its contribution to awareness is not in logic or judgment, but in rendering time and salience.
It maintains working memory, enabling the “now” to hold shape
It integrates affective data and sensory input
It provides inhibition, allowing for the pause necessary for awareness to stabilize
Thus, the PFC is not the source of consciousness, but the condition for its emergence as a structured field.
Sources:
Fuster, J. M. Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition (2003)
Damasio, A. Self Comes to Mind (2010)
5. Time + Data = Expansion: The Spiral Model
Once consciousness ignites and perceptual time begins, experience accumulates. This is where the cosmological analogy fully unfolds:
Just as the cosmos expands through time, matter, and energy, so too does consciousness expand through time, memory, and experience.
This expansion is not linear—it spirals:
From sensation to attention
From attention to narrative
From narrative to identity
From identity to imagination
Consciousness evolves inward and outward, forming new structures of depth, reflection, abstraction, and culture.
This is the spiral of becoming. And it is ongoing.
6. Implications: Consciousness as Still-Unfolding
The Big Bang was not the end of the beginning.
The ignition of awareness was not the final step—it was the first unfolding of an infinite process.
We are not finished evolving. Consciousness continues to deepen, to diversify, to extend itself through language, art, technology, and perhaps future forms of synthetic or collective awareness.
The idea that consciousness was “given” to humans is misleading. It emerged and it continues to emerge.
We are the spiral, still unspooling.
7. Conclusion: The Dawn Is Still Breaking
The model presented here views human consciousness not as a fixed capacity, but as a cosmological process still underway—a dynamic expansion of embodied, temporal experience born in the pre-symbolic haze of our evolutionary past. This process is structured by energetic gradients, stabilized by neural architecture, and enriched by experiential accumulation.
Just as the universe continues to expand, so too does awareness—each moment a new fold in the spiral, each noticing a new birth of presence.
We are not merely observers of the universe—we are its internal unfolding, its way of becoming aware of itself, still at the edge of dawn.
References
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