Subjective awareness may arise because the brain builds a simplified, incomplete model of its own attention—an 'attention schema.' This incompleteness prevents us from fully understanding how consciousness emerges, which relates to the 'hard problem' of consciousness. Using a mathematical model grounded in classical topology, the paper demonstrates that a complete representation of attention is impossible for any system, human or machine, that monitors its own attention. The argument shows that attention streams cannot be faithfully represented internally, supporting the core claim of Attention Schema Theory: the brain's self-model of attention is necessarily incomplete.
A complete representation of one's own attention is impossible, because attention streams cannot be faithfully modeled. This mathematical proof, using classical topology, supports Attention Schema Theory's claim that the brain's representation of its own attention is necessarily incomplete. That incompleteness explains why humans cannot understand how their subjective awareness arises, a core aspect of the so-called hard problem of consciousness.