The PIC/SFT Framework: Conscious Information as a Working Ontology - Axioms, Falsifiable Architecture, and the Empirical Verdicts of a 59-Cycle Chain
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 10, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22683266 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Preregistered Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Public datasets spanning sleep, psychedelics, meditation, cognitive load, and sedation |
| Key points | The authors propose PIC/SFT, a working ontology of consciousness with a measurable nucleus and a pre-registered falsification protocol, and report an audit of 59 cycles on public datasets. They claim the between-family coupling replicated as a marker of field reorganization across five axes (rho -0.56 to -0.84) and that sleep field synergy increased with depth (-0.21 to -0.43 bits), while R as a scalar, the Gaussian copula estimator, and contemplative absorption as a mover of Phi were refuted. |
Abstract
Theories of consciousness face a recurring failure mode: ontological commitments that no measurement can touch. We report the complete architecture and consolidated empirical audit of PIC/SFT (the Principle of Conscious Information / Synergetic Field Theory), a working ontology built to avoid that mode: an axiom (conscious information, IC, as the primary unit), a measurable formal nucleus derived from it, and - the distinguishing feature - an experimental protocol in which every derived observable is subjected to pre-registered, falsifiable tests with frozen criteria, pre-specified verdict branches (including the branches that demote the framework's own candidates), and anti-goalpost discipline. The nucleus: the informational density matrix rho (normalized covariance of the physiological field); Phi (von Neumann entropy of the spectrum - amended, after empirical force, from "consciousness meter" to differentiation face of the spectrum); v_IC (an informational velocity field with a Navier-Stokes-type dynamics and an informational Reynolds number); O_info (the redundancy-synergy balance); and R = E/|O_info| (an energetic-per-structural ratio). The protocol: subject-level statistics (never pooled epochs), synthetic sanity controls before real data, viability gates (power, unit, pipeline, construct-proxy resolution) before freezing, and a post-execution proxy-fidelity audit (four documented failure modes). The audit: 59 cycles across public datasets (sleep, psychedelics, meditation, cognitive load, sedation) produced refutations that stuck (R as scalar; the Gaussian copula as estimator of higher-order synergy; contemplative absorption as a mover of Phi), survivals that replicated (the between-family coupling as a marker of field reorganization - five axes, rho -0.56 to -0.84, vs a null level axis; the sleep field locked in synergy, -0.21 to -0.43 bits with depth), and a boundary theorem (between-face coupling inaccessible by construction). The framework's product is not a final theory but a demonstrated discipline: how to build, test, and honestly demote a working ontology of consciousness on public data.