A Relational Negentropy Engine Model of Consciousness: Neural, Thermodynamic, and Clinical Implications

Abstract

We offer this paper as one productive reframing of the Hard Problem of consciousness. Rather than asking how the brain inside a closed skull produces subjective experience, we suggest this framing may itself be a category error — the same error Goethe identified in Newton's theory of colour. Raw qualia, we argue, is not produced inside the skull; it is the continuous relational flow arising between brain, world, and others. The Neural Primitive layer performs a single multiplicative operation Q(t) = D_eff(t) × MA(t), where D_eff is instantaneous world-engagement density and MA is historical assembly depth. The thermodynamic necessity of this formulation is grounded in three convergent arguments: the brain's 20W constraint requires information crystallisation into Assembly Theory structures (Sharma et al., 2023); Schoenheimer's (1941) dynamic equilibrium identifies the multiplication operator as the physical event of structural renewal; and astrocytic consolidation (Dewa et al., 2025) provides the biological substrate of MA stabilisation. MA carries a three-layer structure: Phylogenetic MA (evolutionary seed), Personal MA (individual history), and Relation_MA (mutual recognition). The zero-distance Relation_MA self-embrace loop — grounded in infant secure base formation and Wadia et al.'s (2026) shared neural codes for perception and imagination — is identified as the minimum unit of consciousness, distinguishing conscious beings from AI systems and philosophical zombies not by computation but by embodied relational history. The universality of Phylogenetic MA grounds human mutual understanding; the individuality of Personal MA makes each person irreplaceable; the neural substrate of empathy is evidenced by Choi et al. (2025) and Hedger et al. (2025). We offer this not as a definitive resolution but as a productive reframing that warrants serious consideration.