A Unified Process-Theoretic Ontology of Reality From Immortal Quantum Fields to Emergent Consciousness and Cosmic Self-Creation

This paper presents a unified process-theoretic ontology of reality in which quantum fields constitute the immortal, pre-propertied substrate whose distributed interactions and condition convergences generate transient particles, emergent spacetime, and an ascending cascade of bounded domains of complexity. The framework rests on five interlinked claims: (1) quantum fields are ontologically primary and their properties pre-exist all excitations; (2) particles are binary actualisation events, not persistent objects; (3) space and time are emergent connectivity structures, not pre-existing containers; (4) finite rule-sets under mutational variation drive open-ended complexity; and (5) when integrated intelligence becomes sufficiently self-referential, it folds inward to produce consciousness — the universe modelling itself from within. The paper situates itself explicitly within its intellectual ancestry — process philosophy (Whitehead), event ontology in QFT (Auyang), relational spacetime (Rovelli), self-referential consciousness (Hofstadter), autopoiesis (Maturana and Varela), and complexity theory (Kauffman, Prigogine) — and identifies precisely where it departs from and extends each prior framework. Original contributions include the Field-Actualisation Model's specific vocabulary of satisfaction-zones and binary actualisation events; the explicit synthesis of the five-level cascade from quantum fields to hybrid AI; and the Bio-Block / kāraka symbolic architecture. Validation notes throughout classify claims as empirically confirmed, theoretically well-motivated, or philosophical proposition.