A Fiber-Bundle Model of Consciousness: An Integrative Framework Linking Neural Dynamics and the Structure of Phenomenal Experience

A theoretical preprint presents the falsifiable core of the Fiber Bundle Theory of Consciousness (FBTC), an integrative framework linking neural dynamics, representational content, phenomenal structure, and report. The framework models consciousness-related systems as three fiber bundles over a shared neural-dynamical base: a gating bundle, a representational-content bundle, and an experience-structure bundle. Conscious events are represented through the coupling of representational and phenomenal structure, with report treated as a lossy projection rather than a transparent readout of experience.

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Abstract

This theoretical preprint presents the falsifiable core of the Fiber Bundle Theory of Consciousness (FBTC), an integrative framework linking neural dynamics, representational content, phenomenal structure, and report. The framework models consciousness-related systems as three fiber bundles over a shared neural-dynamical base: a gating bundle, a representational-content bundle, and an experience-structure bundle. Conscious events are represented through the coupling of representational and phenomenal structure, with report treated as a lossy projection rather than a transparent readout of experience. The manuscript formulates binding, path dependence, and report-experience dissociation as three structural residuals: a gluing residual, a holonomy residual, and a report residual. It defines five operational endpoints for empirical testing and distinguishes the framework from IIT, GNWT, predictive processing, and related structural approaches. The present version explicitly does not claim to solve the hard problem of consciousness; instead, it brackets the existence, correlation, and specificity aspects of the hard problem for future work and focuses on the operationally testable structural core of FBTC.