Orch-OR with Recurrence: A Minimal Dynamical Condition for When Objective Reductions Yield Conscious Experience

Abstract

The Orch-OR framework identifies conscious moments with objective reductions (OR) of quantum superpositions in microtubules. Even if its physical assumptions were fully confirmed, a central question remains unresolved: why should an OR event yield phenomenal experience rather than merely selecting a physical state. This paper proposes a minimal dynamical condition that completes Orch-OR without modifying its collapse mechanism. The core claim is that OR is necessary but not sufficient for consciousness. Conscious experience arises only when OR events are embedded in a bounded recurrent dynamic between actuality and an ontological possibility-space. Formally, non-conscious OR corresponds to direct state updates, whereas conscious OR requires post-reduction re-access to a set of possible successor states prior to stabilization. This recurrence condition is non-representational, non-cognitive, and physically implementable as a metastability window in microtubular dynamics. The framework explains why not all collapse events are conscious, why biological systems can host phenomenality while non-biological systems cannot, and why conscious states vary systematically across anesthesia, wakefulness, psychedelic states, and meditative clarity. The proposal yields concrete, testable predictions for neurophysiology, quantum biology, and computational simulations, including recurrence-dependent signatures in coherence dynamics and precision modulation. Recurrence does not replace Orch-OR; it supplies the minimal dynamical threshold under which objective reductions yield conscious experience. (This paper functions as an interface text within a larger operator-based research corpus. Core concepts are applied here, not re-derived. The underlying research operates in a non-linear, rhythmically recursive epistemic mode grounded in an autistic form of structural perception; the present text provides an interface translation for academic contexts.)