Expectations in a Strange Loop

Complex systems that handle information follow a hierarchical order. The realization of information in hierarchical systems occurs as feedback loops that break the hierarchical order and generate self-referential information. The violation of hierarchical order defines a paradoxical level-crossing strange loop. This pattern lies at the origin of an “I”. It can be depicted as a mathematical phrase composed of ‘subject’predicate that undergoes a loop through which the predicate becomes its own subject: ‘predicate’predicate. Processual information includes present and potential information expressed as information.expectation that becomes realized as the strange loop ‘information.expectation’information.expectation. In fact, expectations drive this strange loop, which can thus be expressed as ‘expectation.information’expectation.information. Conscious experiences constitute running models (expectations) that simulate reality. As multiple levels of strange loops realize expectation.information across the hierarchical organization of the brain, consciousness becomes a higher-level abstraction that supplants and integrates other abstraction levels. Perception inversely maps or generates hidden causes from sensations. Abstractions arise from seen and unseen actions of the organism, which become the source of expectations across multiple levels of nested brain oscillations. Actions provide the basis for this generative model of consciousness. Neural correlates of consciousness do not necessarily explain the origin of consciousness but may simply describe regions implicated in its realization.

Keywords: Active Abstractions, Analogic Realization of Information, Brain Rhythms, Complex Systems, Consciousness-Information, Expectation.Information, Gödel’s Proof, Hierarchical Structure, Hofstadter Strange Loop, Information.Expectation, Inverse Mapping, Level-Crossing, Neural Correlates of Consciousness, Primitives, Potential States, Processual Information, Self- Modeling, Self-Referential, Variable Q.