When Distinctions Vanish: Pregeometric Loss of Identity, Entropy Accounting, and the Conditions for a Cosmological Reset

Could the loss of identity of the universe’s fundamental constituents in a pregeometric regime reset cosmic entropy and permit a new cosmological beginning? We ask what any such reset would require. Three quantities often conflated are separated: the number of classes under an indiscernibility group, the Shannon entropy over those classes, and thermodynamic entropy. Relabelling cannot lower fine-grained entropy under reversible dynamics; a genuine reduction equals the information discarded by a many-to-one physical map, which a reservoir-coupled process must export at a Landauer cost; a non-unitary transition would need its own entropy law. Exact enumeration of all graphs on four to seven vertices and two stochastic models with exact orbit-level dynamics show that orbit entropy cannot certify a physical reset: erasing 15 physical edge bits lowers the entropy by 8.31 kB and requires at least 8.31 kBT of heat, while the orbit entropy falls by only 3.77 kB. Symmetrizing a state never lowers its entropy, and removing labels leaves relational distinctions intact. Under stated Hamiltonian and measure assumptions, labelled and quotient-state models predict different equilibrium populations (6:1 versus 1:1). Four requirements (individuation, dynamics, accounting, selection) are applied to proposals for a fresh cosmological start; none yet meets them all.