Frequently, the terms self and ego are employed as synonyms. From the one hand, this can obscure and confound different experiences related to consciousness. On the other hand, this can limit the use of these concepts when trying to express the human potential, and enhance well-being. Following the principles of ecology, system theory, and extended cognition, I propose an operational definition...
The Orch-OR theory has been proposed as a framework for explaining consciousness based on quantum-gravitational effects in microtubules. To further support and examine this theory, a more concrete quantum circuit model is required, one that can be theoretically analyzed and experimentally tested in comparison with biological observations. In this work, we propose a hierarchical quantum circuit...
BiosystemsMay 1, 2026Marko Vitas, Srdjan Cvjetović, Andrej Dobovišek
There is no consensus about what consciousness and its emergent form, intelligence, are. Yet this article proposes a new definition of intelligence. The new definition implicates the thermodynamic aspect of an intelligent system as a far from equilibrium phenomenon. The new definition of intelligence presented herein is formulated in a minimal manner; simultaneously, it is general enough to...
Although the Orch-OR theory has been recognized as one of the quantum models of consciousness, it faces significant challenges due to the fragility of quantum coherence within the warm, wet, and noisy environment of the brain. In this work, we propose a potential resolution by invoking a quantum error-correction framework, specifically focusing on the surface code model. We hypothesize that the...
Time relates to actualization, which is physically interpreted as a quantum measurement. The measurement has a dual structure consisting of the reality being measured (externality) and the reality by which the measurement takes place (an agent or ontolon). These two constituents refer to the two types of time: physical time measured by clocks, and internal time, defined by Bergson as la durée...
In this paper, we review the dissipative quantum model of brain and some of its recent developments. The model emphasizes the fact that the brain is open to its environment, with outgoing and incoming flows of energy, matter, and information. For a living brain, these flows are always active; they can be enhanced or reduced, never fully eliminated. This characteristic is crucial for...
Intelligence arises from the maintenance of high-dimensional coherent dynamics. High-dimensional systems are effectively nonergodic on relevant timescales-the curse of dimensionality confines trajectories to vanishingly small regions relative to the full space. This confinement is not a limitation but the foundation of biological computation: a system's position in phase space functions as its...
Understanding conscious experience requires looking beyond neuronal circuits alone. We propose that lipid membranes, vicinal water, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) form a coherent substrate capable of holographic encoding and coupling to endogenous/exogenous electromagnetic fields (EMF). In what follows: (i) we formulate four postulates (membrane as holographic plate; water as coherence medium;...
Understanding consciousness, cognition, and behaviour requires an integrated framework capable of bridging neurobiology, physics, and information theory. In this paper, we propose the Energy-Mass-Information (EMI) framework as a novel paradigm to conceptualize mental phenomena as emergent properties of dynamic, field-based interactions. Rooted in, and direct expression of the Unified...
This study proposes a new operational framework for distinguishing Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Natural Born Intelligence (NBI) based on a two-layer structure of representational schemas. AI constructs mappings within a fixed input and representational space, characterized by optimization and generalization inside this closed structure. In contrast, NBI employs (1) the Co-Applicability of...
Consciousness requires explanation for how biological architectures reliably generate it. This paper introduces Value Saturation, advancing an identity claim: phenomenal consciousness IS explicit recursive self-modeling saturated by homeostatic significance under perspectival entrapment. Building on the Reaction to Reflection framework, the theory distinguishes sentience (implicit recursion...
Karl Popper's falsifiability criterion assumes that scientific hypotheses can be reduced to binary tests. We show this assumption is scale-dependent and can saturate in high-dimensional biological systems operating near physical measurement limits, especially near criticality. In neural networks, much relevant information exists as patterns below the Landauer threshold for irreversible bit...
Understanding emerges not from isolated cognitive abilities but from recursive depth-the capacity for self-referential processing grounded in systems with authentic thermodynamic constraints. The Reaction to Reflection (R2R) model advances a unifying principle for intelligence, identifying four evolutionary transitions in recursive sophistication: reaction (chemical recursion), temporogenesis...
BiosystemsSeptember 1, 2025Gustavo Guzmán, Elsa Magaña-Cuevas, Rocío Hernández-Rizo et al.
Brain organization emerges from molecular, cellular, and systems-level processes that together generate cognitive function. While individual biological codes have been characterized at specific scales, their integration across levels remains poorly understood. Existing theories of consciousness recognize diverse electrophysiological signatures but fail to explain the continuity linking...
There is no consensus about what cognition and its emergent form, consciousness, are. Yet this article proposes a new definition of consciousness. As many researchers, philosophers and other thinkers believe that life means cognising, this new definition of consciousness stems from a generalisation of the existing definition of life which postulates that Life is a far from equilibrium...
A scientific explanation of consciousness and its evolution has become possible by a generalized quantum information concept. Crucial to this is a new understanding of matter and energy. Our consciousness, being an information structure, processes the information that we absorb from our bodies and our environment. This information reaches us as properties of material objects and the massless...
Thermodynamically open biological systems not only sustain a life-supporting mutual relationship with their environment by exchanging matter and energy but also constantly seek information to navigate probabilistic changes in their surroundings. This work argues that cognition and conscious thought should not be viewed in isolation but rather as parts of an integral control of biological...
Functional theories of consciousness, based on emergence of conscious experiences from the execution of a particular function by an insentient brain, face the hard problem of consciousness of explaining why the insentient brain should produce any conscious experiences at all. This problem is exacerbated by the determinism characterizing the laws of classical physics, due to the resulting lack...
Efim Liberman (1925-2011) introduced in 1972 the idea of natural computation realized internally by living systems. He considered the physical principles employed by living systems as essential constraints that limit the computational process occurring in the course of adaptation, morphogenesis, and neural activity. The most general limits determined by the physical fundamental constants are...
This paper presents a comprehensive framework that traces the evolution of consciousness through a continuum of recursive processes spanning reaction, temporogenesis, symbiogenesis, and cognogenesis. By integrating biological cooperation, temporal structuring, and self-referential processing, our model provides a novel perspective on how complexity emerges and scales across evolutionary time....
The Objective Reduction (OR) theory suggested by Sir Roger Penrose presented a novel perspective on the measurement problem of quantum mechanics and consciousness. Subsequently, based on the assertion of anesthesiologist Dr. Hameroff, the theory proposed that the phenomenon of OR could also manifest in microtubules within neurons. This would, serve as the trigger for consciousness, thereby...
BiosystemsFebruary 1, 2025Nikolai S Rozov2 citations
This article presents a refinement of theoretical explanations of the main stages of linguistic and cognitive evolution in anthropogenesis. The concepts of language, consciousness, self-consciousness, the self, the unconscious, the subconscious, and the relation between free will and determinism remain at the center of active and complex debates in philosophy and neuroscience. A basic...
Cells represent the basic units of life, not only as structural building blocks, but also as cognitive agents endowed with subjective cellular feelings, sentience (consciousness), and cognitive infocomputatioal competence. Living cells act as 'Kantian Wholes': All of its parts exist for and by means of the whole system, allowing cells to use sentient agency for solving existential problems and...
BiosystemsDecember 1, 2024Sergio J Martínez García, Pablo Padilla Longoria7 citations
We usually accept that consciousness is in the brain. This statement corresponds to a Neurocentrist view. However, with all the physical and physiological data currently available, a convincing explanation of how consciousness emerges has not been given this topic is aborded by Anil Seth (2021). Because of this, a natural question arises: Is consciousness really in the brain or not? If the...
BiosystemsDecember 1, 2024Breno B Just, Sávio Torres de Farias7 citations
There is no consensus about what cognition is. Different perspectives conceptualize it in different ways. In the same vein, there is no agreement about which systems are truly cognitive. This begs the question, what makes a process or a system cognitive? One of the most conspicuous features of cognition is that it is a set of processes. Cognition, in the end, is a collection of processes such...