Temporal Integration, Bidirectional Criticality and Emergence of Consciousness Hierarchy 时序整合、双向临界与意识层级涌现中文V91预印本

Existing theories describe correlates of consciousness without explaining why it exists. This paper starts from three axioms—limited resources, survival-screening constraints, and discrete inputs—to demonstrate that the self-referential closed loop is the optimal engineering solution for persistence under resource constraints. When temporal integration crosses a critical threshold, the system necessarily attributes causal chains to a single persistent subject, the 'self.

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Abstract

Existing theories describe correlates of consciousness without explaining why it exists. This paper starts from three axioms—limited resources, survival-screening constraints, and discrete inputs—to demonstrate that the self-referential closed loop is the optimal engineering solution for persistence under resource constraints. When temporal integration crosses a critical threshold, the system necessarily attributes causal chains to a single persistent subject, the "self." The model quantifies consciousness via temporal span T, reconstruction activity A, and closed-loop integrity C, deriving a two-step emergence geometry of "folding into a loop plus anchoring into a surface," and revealing A's incompletability and layered structure driven by permanently unfulfilled constraints. Qualia are defined as endogenous calibration signals of the self-referential loop, representing the optimal encoding format under evolutionary time pressure—reframing the hard problem as a parameter-interval problem and identifying the first-person/third-person gap as arising from temporal unidirectionality. A five-level consciousness spectrum is established through bidirectional criticality; a resource-depletion spectrum for psychiatric disorders is proposed; and four hard constraints for AGI consciousness are derived. Recursive self-referentiality of the survival-screening constraint forms the core of consciousness: A never exhausts, and non-utilitarian overflow is its ontological feature.现有理论描述意识"关联物"却未回答其"为何存在"。本文以资源有限、存续筛选约束、离散输入三条公理为起点，证明自指闭环是资源约束下存续的最优工程解：时序整合跨临界后，系统必归因因果链于同一主体"我"。模型以时序跨度T、重构活跃度A、闭环完整度C为核，推导"对折成圈+锚定成面"两步几何，揭示A因约束永不可完成而呈圈层结构。感受质被界定为自指闭环内生校准信号，是演化时间压力下最优编码格式，从而将意识难问题转为参数区间问题，并指出第一、三人称裂隙源于时间单向性。依托双向临界建立五级意识谱系，提出精神疾病资源衰竭解释谱系，导出AGI四项硬约束。存续筛选约束递归自指性构成意识核心，A永不枯竭，非功利溢出是其本体特征。