Can AI ever become conscious?
Whether computers can currently be considered conscious or aware, even to a limited extent, depends largely on the framework used to define awareness and consciousness. For instance, IIT equates consciousness with the capacity for information processing, while the Higher-Order Thought (HOT) theory integrates elements of self-awareness and intentionality into its definition.
This manuscript reviews and critically compares major theories of consciousness, with a particular emphasis on awareness, attention, and the sense of self. By delineating the distinctions between artificial and natural intelligence, it explores whether advancements in AI technologies—such as machine learning and neural networks—could enable AI to achieve some degree of consciousness or develop a sense of agency.
Awareness at the Crossroad of Illusion and the Soul
Awareness and consciousness are often used interchangeably, yet they represent distinct cognitive phenomena. While consciousness is commonly perceived as a state of mind encompassing one’s environment and self, awareness is the subjective experience derived from objective mental processes. This transformation converts sensation into perception, knowledge into knowing, emotion into feeling, and memory into remembering. Despite its undeniable importance, awareness challenges the current physical framework of brain function, sparking debates about its nature. Some scholars argue that awareness is an illusion—an interpretative process of the brain adapted to reality—while others equate it to the immaterial and immortal concept of the soul. This article examines awareness as a cognitive construct within the Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (TTC) and explores its role in processes such as awareness-based choice selection (ABCS). It further differentiates awareness from illusion—a dysfunctional cognitive process—and from the metaphysical notion of the immaterial soul. Finally, it underscores the critical role of awareness in self-reflection and decision-making.
Understanding Consciousness Through a New Lens
This brief essay introduces a new way to understand awareness and consciousness—not just as something our brain does, but as something that exists in a deeper, invisible layer of reality.
The theory is called the Quantum Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (QTTC). It blends ideas from:
Quantum Physics (how particles and energy behave at the smallest scales),
Field Theory (which describes invisible fields like gravity or magnetism),
and a model of the mind called the Trilogy Theory of Consciousness, which breaks human consciousness into three key parts:
Awareness – the ability to perceive
Intention – the drive to choose
Self-reflection – the ability to know oneself (the “I”)
What’s the big idea?
The key idea is that awareness is like a field—just like gravity or light—always present and ready to interact with us. You don’t create awareness in your brain; rather, your mind tunes into this universal field.
From this perspective, your experiences (like thoughts, feelings, or decisions) are not random brain signals. Instead, they are like tiny ripples or waves in this field—each one carrying meaning. The paper introduces a term for these ripples: “noëtons” that is like quantum particles of awareness and is derived from greek word of "noësis" which means "knowing" and "intuition".
How is this related to quantum physics?
QTTC doesn’t say your brain is literally doing quantum calculations. Instead, it borrows the language and structure of quantum theory to explain how awareness might work:
Just like particles can exist in multiple states at once (superposition), we often hold several possibilities in mind before deciding.
When we finally make a decision, we "collapse" those possibilities into a single action—just like how a quantum wave collapses into a known state.
Our intentions, like symmetry breaking in physics, shift the direction of awareness, shaping what we pay attention to.
The self (our sense of "I") forms when awareness becomes structured and focused—similar to how physicists use gauge fixing to organize a field into something measurable.
And finally, transformation of awareness is excitation of the filed and generation of noëton quanta in the universal file of awareness
Why is this important?
This new model opens the door to thinking about consciousness in a whole new way—not as a glitch in the brain, but as a deep interaction between mind and field. It suggests that awareness might be a basic feature of the universe—just like space, time, and energy.
What else does it explore?
It discusses how DNA and microtubules (tiny parts of our cells) might act like antennas, helping our biology "tune in" to the awareness field.
It touches on non-chemical communication between cells, hinting at deeper ways life may interact across space and time.
It doesn’t solve the "Hard Problem of Consciousness" (why we have inner experience), but it offers a new way to look at it.
Final thoughts
The Quantum Trilogy Theory of Consciousness presents a bold idea: that the mind is not just a machine, and awareness is not just a byproduct of the brain. Instead, it may be part of the universe’s deeper structure—one that’s always been there, waiting for us to understand it.
Awareness, Automation, and the Illusion of Free Will:
Rethinking Libet Through Trilogy Theory
This article proposes a reinterpretation of behavioral conditioning, decision-making, and the neuroscience of volition using the Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (TTC). The theory distinguishes between Awareness-Based Choice Selection (ABCS)—decisions made consciously through volition—and Selection of Choice Based on Algorithm (SCBA)—automated, unconscious behavior patterns shaped by repetition and conditioning.
Beginning with a story of fish relearning a feeding routine after prolonged neglect, the article draws a parallel to Pavlovian conditioning and explores how repeated conscious engagement can give rise to predictable, reflex-like responses. TTC provides a structured model of decision-making that unfolds through three stages: preselection (integration of emotional and informational intelligence), selection (the ABCS moment), and post-selection appropriation (feedback encoding and behavior consolidation).
A key contribution of the article is the reinterpretation of Benjamin Libet’s 1983 experiment, which has been widely cited as evidence against free will. Libet observed that the brain’s readiness potential preceded participants’ awareness of intention to move, suggesting that conscious will follows rather than precedes neural activity. The TTC critique argues that Libet’s experimental design promoted SCBA by employing repetitive, low-stakes movements that quickly transitioned to automated behavior. Thus, the intention Libet thought he was measuring had already been internalized and automated, bypassing ABCS. The TTC framework suggests that if Libet had studied novel, unconditioned choices, the timeline between intention and neural readiness might have aligned differently.
The article also outlines the double-edged nature of SCBA. While automation enhances cognitive efficiency, stability, and speed—freeing awareness for more novel or complex tasks—it can also limit flexibility, embed maladaptive habits, and reduce perceived agency. Meta-awareness, the ability to monitor and modify internal algorithms, is presented as a vital function that allows individuals to re-engage awareness and reclaim intentionality.
To validate these theoretical claims, the article proposes experimental designs involving digital piano tasks and neuroimaging techniques. These could help track the transition from conscious choice to automation, offering measurable neural markers for the ABCS-to-SCBA shift.
In conclusion, the TTC provides an integrated account of volition, habit formation, and learning that bridges cognitive science and neuroscience. It not only clarifies how free will may operate under conditions of true awareness but also provides tools for reintroducing intention into habitual or conditioned patterns. Awareness, while limited in bandwidth, remains a powerful force in shaping and reshaping the mind’s internal architecture.
From Awareness to Consciousness: A Novel Exploration Through Dreaming
This paper redefines the Hard Problem of Consciousness as fundamentally a Hard Problem of Awareness, distinguishing between two often conflated concepts. Through the lens of the Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (TTC), the author proposes that consciousness is not a singular state but a structured process comprising three key components: awareness, intention, and self-reflection.
Drawing from a vivid personal dream experience, the paper illustrates how awareness can be present without volition or selfhood—demonstrated in REM sleep states where rich sensory experiences exist without conscious action. Neurophysiological phenomena like REM atonia, lucid dreaming, and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)support this dissociation, showing that subjective experience (awareness) can occur without decision-making or identity (consciousness).
TTC describes four stages of awareness—from raw sensory processing to post-transformation operations like evaluation and memory encoding—highlighting that consciousness only emerges when awareness is coupled with intention and reflection. This framework is further paralleled by a three-stage model of decision-making, contrasting conscious choice (Awareness-Based Choice Selection, ABCS) with unconscious algorithms (SCBA, SIBA).
A key insight is that dreaming showcases awareness without full consciousness. While dreamers may feel present, they rarely question implausibilities due to suppressed reflective faculties. However, lucid dreaming serves as a bridge, demonstrating partial reactivation of intention and volition—thus validating TTC’s layered structure.
The article introduces the Quantum Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (QTTC), which metaphorically frames awareness as a non-local, universal field—Universal Awareness Field (UAF)—whose excitations give rise to subjective experience (noëtons). Consciousness, in this view, is a localized phenomenon emerging when awareness is shaped by self and intention.
In conclusion, TTC and QTTC offer a compelling theoretical model grounded in phenomenology and supported by empirical sleep research. They propose that while awareness is the foundation of experience, true consciousness arises only through volitional and self-reflective integration.
From Subjective Experience to Intention: Beyond the Hard Problem of Consciousness
This paper offers a new framework for understanding consciousness by reorienting the classical “hard problem”—the challenge of explaining how subjective experience arises from physical processes. Rather than asking how consciousness originates, the paper proposes a broader view: what happens after awareness emerges?
Drawing on the Trilogy Theory of Consciousness (TTC), the author presents a four-stage model of awareness—preselection, selection, transformation, and post-transformation—that traces the journey from raw experience to volitional action. In this model, awareness is not a passive state but an active force that enables intention, memory encoding, reasoning, and decision-making.
Key concepts include Awareness-Based Choice Selection (ABCS)—the point where awareness tips a decision toward a conscious choice—and appropriation, a unique post-decision evaluative stage. These mechanisms are contrasted with Selection of Choice Based on Algorithm (SCBA), which explains automated behaviors in both natural and artificial intelligence.
The paper argues that consciousness emerges from the dynamic interplay of three components: awareness, intention, and self-reflection. Unlike Artificial Intelligence (AI), which operates on algorithms, Natural Intelligence (NI) has the capacity to interrupt automated routines and reflect, adjust, and generate selfhood. Thus, the “hard problem” becomes not just one of emergence, but one of function, recursion, and agency—redefining consciousness as a system shaped by awareness and structured intention over time.