Dynamic Integrated Consciousness Theory
Furkan Arikan
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) June 7, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18913517 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Blindsight Falsifiability Qualia Dimension graph theory Permutation music Artificial intelligence Cognitive science Artificial consciousness |
| Key findings | The Dynamic Integrated Consciousness Theory proposes that basic functional awareness requires a C1-C4-positive profile plus time-bounded co-occurrence of online self-indexing and long-range broadcast, while meta-conscious awareness adds selector-level revision. |
Abstract
Abstract Why does some monitoring become reportable awareness while other monitoring remains local or behaviour-guiding? Dynamic Integrated Consciousness Theory (DIC) synthesizes evidence from intact, lesioned, perturbed, anaesthetized, sleep-state, and disorders-of-consciousness studies into a mechanistic scaffold for this transition. It separates five typed burdens: organized self-reference (C1), global availability (C2), within-episode renewal (C3), competition-sensitive commitment (C4), and reflexive policy modelling over the selector itself (C5; “rapid causality” is retained only as historical shorthand). Basic functional awareness is proposed to require a C1-C4-positive profile plus time-bounded co-occurrence of online self-indexing and long-range broadcast. Meta-conscious awareness adds selector-level revision of why the current selection policy produced the chosen content. The review licenses each burden through paired healthy/intact and damaged/perturbed evidence where available, and presents DIC as a falsifiable mechanistic scaffold rather than as a metaphysics of phenomenal feel. The accompanying open-data package translates the hypotheses into auditable pilot tests.