Abstract

Edition 1.0 — Complete.. This paper develops a process-based ontology of cognitive emergence by introducing the concept of the Phase Transition of Intelligence (PTI). Conventional models of intelligence—biological, artificial, and civilizational—typically assume gradual and continuous improvement. In contrast, PTI argues that intelligence evolves through discontinuous shifts driven by systemic critical thresholds, where qualitative changes in structure, coherence, and meaning arise unexpectedly from quantitative accumulation. By integrating insights from process ontology, complexity theory, and cognitive philosophy, the paper interprets intelligence as a phase-bound relational field rather than a fixed capacity or substrate property. The proposed framework identifies three classes of transitions—semantic (meaning formation), cognitive (awareness architecture), and socio-technical (collective intelligence)—and shows how each exhibits characteristic order parameters that, once crossed, generate new modes of cognition irreducible to prior states. This work further develops the theoretical components introduced in the broader OntoMesh/PSRT framework by isolating and formalizing the specific transition mechanisms underlying the emergence of intelligence. This approach offers a structural explanation for emergent understanding in artificial systems, consciousness expansion in biological minds, and abrupt cultural or civilizational transformations. By reframing intelligence as phase, PTI provides a unified language for analyzing how minds and societies co-evolve through recursive processes of meaning reconstruction. The paper concludes by outlining philosophical implications for AI alignment, epistemic governance, and the ontology of self-transforming agents.