Coherence Before Cognition: Distributed Sensing, Resonance-State Memory, and Geometric Signal Conditioning Across Biological Scales within the Sympathetic Harmonic Resonance Framework (SHRF)}

Across biological systems, sensing, memory, and coordination frequently emerge without centralized cognition. Instead, organisms externalize information processing into morphology, material properties, geometry, and collective structure. This paper synthesizes evidence from cnidarians, insects, vertebrates, and eusocial systems to propose a unifying interpretation within the Sympathetic Harmonic Resonance Framework (SHRF): that biological structures function as passive or semi-active resonance-conditioning interfaces, shaping environmental signals before neural interpretation. We integrate jellyfish memory-like behavior, insect patterning, collective architectures, photophore arrays, and geometric sensing such as eyes on stalks into a single, falsifiable framework emphasizing coherence before cognition. This work is consistent with prior SHRF analyses of coherence without cognition and distributed biological agency. Keywords coherence before cognition, SHRF, distributed sensing, resonance-state memory, morphology as computation, jellyfish, insects, photophores, eye stalks, collective behavior