The interdisciplinary ontology of consciousness in multiscale neuroscience

Abstract

According to the Interdisciplinary Ontology called "Triple Aspect Monism" (TAM), consciousness has three necessary - and conjointly sufficient - aspects: Matter, Information and Sentience. All three equally derive from a 'neutral' basis - one that is neither physical nor mental - called Energy. Matter is particle-condensed Energy; Information is the differential distribution of Energy in Space, and Sentience (defined as "the capacity of feeling") is a special type of distribution of Energy in Time. Although the three aspects are potentially present in Energy, their conjunction, generating conscious experiences, occurs only - as far as we know - in living systems. In these systems, the three aspects are integrated during the evolutionary process; they develop the “first-person perspective” proper to each singular conscious being, arising from a self-organization process (the "endogenous feedback”), which, in humans, allows the emergence of self-referential meaningful language. While Matter and Information are well treated by natural and computational sciences, the understanding of Sentience, with its special temporal waveforms, poses challenges, for which a new science - called Sentiomics was formulated. Two compatible explanations are provided here, for the emergence of Sentience: 1) As a Fibonacci-like pattern of amplitude modulation of multi-ionic waves in time, and 2) As a quantum geometric constraint operating in dynamic organic systems and projecting conscious contents.