From Universality to Consciousness: Beyond the Skull, Into the World
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) August 11, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21889544 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that phenomenal consciousness is identified with the internal constitution of a world-coupled path loop, not an extra inner property. Proposes Self-Forming Agents as a synthetic intervention model, with results supporting the causal architecture: experience order altered held-out responses, consolidated history encoded temporal precedence and transferred choice biases, while negative tests rejected item-specific replay and delayed content improvement. |
Abstract
Abstract How can universal law yield a consciousness that is private, temporally continuous, and capable of acting back upon the world? This paper proposes a world-coupled path theory. A universal update rule first creates a fragile asymmetry; repeated encounters transform it into a history-bearing path. The world alters that path (feeling), the alteration remains attributable to this non-interchangeable history (privacy), the formed history directs action back into the world (will), and action-contingent consequences return to the same path (lived reality). Development is not an additional component alongside these relations, but the temporal process through which they form a single loop. Phenomenal consciousness is identified not with an extra inner property added to this loop, but with its internal constitution: the world appearing for a path that it continually changes. Self-Forming Agents provide a synthetic intervention model. Experience order altered held-out responses; consolidated history encoded temporal precedence and transferred choice biases; and closed-yoked, passive, and history- shuffle controls isolated action-contingent return from sensory sequence and historical difference. Negative tests rejected item-specific replay and delayed content improvement. These results test the causal architecture, not consciousness in the artificial system. The account differs from panpsychism by making phenomenality conditional on a specific world-coupled organization, and it remains compatible with the second law by distinguishing thermodynamic entropy from spectral and path-relative entropy.