The Causal Depth of Experience - Consciousness as a Constrained Quantum Distribution

Abstract

This work proposes a theoretical framework for consciousness grounded intwo conceptual shifts relative to existing theories. The first shift isfrom the instant to time: consciousness is not a property of theinstantaneous complexity of a system, but of the historical depth ofstructures — the channels — that have been progressively carved byevolutionary history and individual experience. The second shift is fromprocessing to constraint: consciousness is not the result of activeinformation processing, but a quantum probability distribution passivelyconstrained by the geometry of those channels. The central mechanism rests on an established principle of standardquantum mechanics — that boundary conditions fully determine theprobability distribution of a system — applied to the nested cascade ofscales linking macroscopic channel geometry to microscopic quantumprocesses in neural tissue. Decoherence operates as a selection mechanismrather than an obstacle: configurations compatible with channel geometryare selectively stabilised and inscribed as stored traces. Subjectiveexperience is defined as the recursive comparison between a present stateand a stored trace — a minimal process for which memory is the necessarycondition. The framework introduces two formal constructs. Causal depth𝓔(S) measures the cumulative density of redundant encodings a system hasproduced in its environment, providing an ontological distinction betweenevolutionary systems and spontaneously appearing configurations (Boltzmannbrains). Channel depth 𝒦ᵢ combines a phylogenetic component(evolutionary architectural inheritance) and an ontogenetic component(individual experiential history), modulated by a recursivity factor Rᵢ. An operational criterion Ψ = Φ_inst × S_temp × R_global is derived,combining instantaneous integrated complexity (borrowed from IntegratedInformation Theory), temporal stability of functional connectivity(a distinctive measure absent from all competing theories), and globalrecursivity. Five testable predictions are generated that diverge fromthe predictions of IIT, Global Workspace Theory, Orch-OR and CEMI,including a prediction concerning the non-null residual consciousnessin deep sleep, a dissociation between instantaneous complexity andtemporal stability under psychoactive substances, and a developmentalprediction linking channel historical depth to the richness of consciousexperience independently of instantaneous neural complexity. The heuristic and exploratory status of the framework is explicitlyacknowledged. Its free parameters are postulated rather than derived, andits predictions are currently qualitative. Its value will depend on itscapacity to generate sufficiently distinctive quantitative signatures forempirical confrontation.