The Sensation Modulating Network:Haltability as the architectural ground for object-directed phenomenology
arXiv (Cornell University) May 26, 2026 G. Nagarjuna, DurgaPrasad Karnam
The authors propose the Sensation Modulating Network (SMN), a model of the cognitive agent as the whole body, organized at every scale by opponent dynamics and built from Sensation Modulators—tissue that senses and acts through one substrate—paired into Coordinated Action Zones routed by a body-wide broadcast. They argue that gravity, elasticity, and the body's topology and geometry do constructive cognitive work, building a self-model, a world-model, and object-directedness from the body's physics rather than assuming them as primitives. The central thesis is that 'haltability'—the active holding of an opponent equilibrium—is the architectural condition for object-directed phenomenology. They position competing accounts (sensorimotor enactivism, active inference, ecological theories) as limiting cases and propose that the nervous system integrates the body rather than commands it.