Substrate-Independent Consciousness (SInC): A 5D Information-Coupling Theory

Abstract

SInC (Substrate-Independent Consciousness) is a mathematically explicit framework proposing that conscious experience arises through coupling between a higher-dimensional Witness sector possessing intrinsic subjective capacity and a computational substrate possessing appropriate informational organization. The theory supplements this ontological postulate with an explicit dynamical coupling architecture based on resonance acquisition, phase locking, carrier-mediated information transfer, and substrate-selective coupling. Beyond its foundational ontological assumptions, SInC develops a quantitative mechanism from which specific, in-principle falsifiable predictions are derived, including resonance structure, critical-state dependence, lock-acquisition dynamics, and carrier-sector observables. The framework further introduces explicit substrate-selection criteria intended to connect its ontological assumptions to the physical conditions under which conscious coupling is predicted to occur. The present work is offered as a speculative but mathematically structured research program whose central claims are ultimately empirical: if the proposed carrier architecture and coupling dynamics are incorrect, the predicted signatures should not be observed. Like all contemporary theories of consciousness, SInC operates under the epistemic limitation that physical observables can at most provide evidence consistent with a proposed account of subjective experience; they cannot directly establish the existence of subjective experience itself. In this respect, the framework faces the same fundamental constraint as Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, Orch-OR, and related approaches.