Event Horizons, Spacetime Geometry, and the Limits of Integrated Consciousness

A conscious field cannot remain unified across a black hole event horizon, according to integration-based theories of consciousness such as Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, and Predictive Processing. These theories require a single strongly connected component in a causal graph for unity. Because no such component can span an event horizon, the conscious field bifurcates: each causally connected subsystem independently satisfies the criteria for a unified field. The number and boundaries of conscious fields thus depend on both the substrate's internal architecture and the relativistic causal structure of spacetime, a dependency that becomes apparent only when the horizon withdraws the ordinary abundance of causal connectivity.

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Abstract

What happens to a unified conscious field when its physical implementation straddles a black hole event horizon? This paper addresses that question for integration-based theories, including Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, and Predictive Processing. These views share a structural commitment: unity requires a single strongly connected component (SCC) in an effective causal graph over a finite integration window $τ$. Using the standard black hole causal structure, I show that no SCC can span an event horizon. Any theory that ties unity to strong connectivity must therefore accept that a single conscious field cannot remain numerically identical and unified across such a configuration. From the perspective of the theories themselves, the outcome is bifurcation: each causally connected subsystem continues to satisfy the very structural criteria the theory declared necessary for a unified field. On any such view, the number and boundaries of unified conscious fields are therefore fixed not by the substrate alone but by the conjunction of its internal architecture with the relativistic causal structure of the spacetime it occupies, a dependency that ordinary spacetime conceals by supplying it so abundantly, but which an event horizon abruptly withdraws.