A Non-Copyable Component of Conscious Identity: Empirical Predictions from Eleven Identical Brains

Waking as the same person despite complete material turnover of the brain poses a logical trilemma for theories that identify consciousness solely with brain structure or information processing. Three thought experiments—perfect revival, perfect copy, and simultaneous multiplication of physically identical brains—reveal difficulties for Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and Orchestrated Objective Reduction. A quantum-informational model is proposed in which consciousness includes a non-copyable identity carrier coupled to an evolvable mental pattern through bidirectional interaction with neural electromagnetic fields. The model generates six falsifiable predictions; the most direct—action potentials from conscious neurons showing 0.5-3 mV deviations from Hodgkin-Huxley waveforms—is testable within months using patch-clamp techniques.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Each morning, one wakes as the same person who slept. This familiarity obscures its strangeness: every atom in the brain has been replaced many times since childhood. The brain present today shares no material particle with the brain present forty years ago. What physical principle explains this continuity? Here I present three hypothetical thought experiments—perfect revival, perfect copy, and simultaneous multiplication of physically identical brains—that expose a logical trilemma for any framework identifying consciousness solely with brain structure or information processing. Analysis suggests that Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and Orchestrated Objective Reduction each face difficulties resolving this trilemma. I therefore propose a quantum-informational model in which consciousness includes a non-copyable identity carrier (\Psi-I) coupled to an evolvable mental pattern (\Psi-G) through bidirectional interaction with the spatiotemporal structure of neural electromagnetic fields generated by voltage-gated ion channels. \Psi-G records volitional neural activity and exerts weak probabilistic bias on sodium and potassium channel kinetics. The model generates six falsifiable predictions with quantitative thresholds. The most direct—that action potentials from conscious neurons will show 0.5-3 \mathrm{mV} deviations from Hodgkin-Huxley waveforms—is testable within months using existing patch-clamp techniques. Four additional predictions address the finite and conserved nature of \Psi-I complexes, including demographic constraints and testable consequences of the multiplication thought experiment. A conceptual analogy to quantum teleportation is noted as a mathematical formalism, not a physical claim. This framework offers a testable approach to the Subjective Binding Problem while generating immediately testable hypotheses.