Consciousness cannot be directly measured. It is not physically present. It is
an abstraction that emerges from the relationships between processes. Natural selection
transformed structures into processes with informational value. Processes have
expectations. Subjectivity is the realization of expectations built into the processes that
connect a subject and the world around it. Qualia become possible when a subject
realizes locally encoded information. Inferences of causal regularities in the Bayesian
sampler brain originated from the structural order of living systems. The realization of
awareness of location arises from the matching of maps generated by hippocampal
activation. These maps give origin to omnidirectional cell assemblies that can represent
abstract meaning. Actions generate concrete and abstract maps. State-dependent hidden
expectations in local networks also underlie active expectations in time perception, in
other subjective experiences, and mechanisms for conscious perception that trace back
to the early components of the brain decision network. Interoception realization arises
from the hierarchical architecture of the insula consistently with instantiation of
successively higher re-representations. Interoception likely arises from a strange loop
merging a represented body with a simple self in which the represented body is a
building block of the self it represents. Predictive Coding lends support to a Bayesian
inference of hidden causes in the environment. It is a generative model that depends on
actions. Within its context, perception corresponds to the inverse mapping of the
hidden causes of sensations. Ultimately, being the subject is the realization of inference
inversely mapped out of hidden causes of global, integrated actions. Olfactory
perception abstracts regularities from the environment into odor-objects of adaptive
value through re-representation of structural maps into categories that arise from
iterative neuronal assembly oscillations. Strong evidence suggests that human
consciousness arises from globally distributed brain activity enabling sustained
coherent oscillatory states. The existence of reentrant thalamocortical and
corticothalamic oscillations supports the idea of realization of abstract information
through re-reading of the strange loop ‘expectation. information’ expectation.
information into ‘prediction. predictive-error’prediction. predictive-error and,
ultimately, into the ‘top-down. bottom-up’top-down. bottom-up and the ‘feedback.
feedforward’feedback. feedforward of cortical and thalamic loops. The ideas contained
here are consistent with the empirical evidence provided by the IIT. However, this
blueprint moves away from the IIT cryptic intelligent design and panpsychism. The
adoption of strange loops as a core component of this blueprint is consistent with the
Predictive Coding paradigm, with embodied abstractions generated at the insula, and
with a multiple level self-modeling description through which lower levels provide
primitives for higher-level modeling. Strange loops reconcile the local and global paradox of consciousness. These ideas are consistent with the resonance principles
contained in the ART, whereby resonances supporting qualia arise from the realization
of information in the strange loop ‘expectation.information’expectation.information in
which ‘expectation.information’ ←→ expectation.information at higher levels of
functional organization.
Keywords: Active Expectations, Adaptive Resonance Theory, Bayesian Sampler,
Computational Models, Default Mode Network, Embodied Abstractions,
Effective Information, Focal Awareness, Generative Models, Global Neuronal
Workspace Theory, Interoception, Integrated Information Theory, Mechanisms of
Consciousness, Noncomputational Subject, Omnidirectional Cells, Phenomenal
Consciousness, Predictive Coding, Problem of Records, Quantum Theories of
Consciousness, Realization of Information, Self-Modeling, Sustained
Oscillations.
