Formal layer · A — Awareness

Awareness (A)

This page is a structured extract of the Rev 5 master text (Section 5.1). It is intended as a precise anchor for the “Deep Dive” section, not as an expansion of the ontology.

Information alone is not awareness. Information exists wherever differences are structured, but awareness arises only when information is registered from a particular perspective. Awareness is therefore not synonymous with complexity, processing, or storage. It is a structural condition in which information is presented to a system rather than merely instantiated within it. Awareness introduces asymmetry.

Where information is symmetric and relational, awareness establishes a distinction between what is registered and that which registers it. This subject–object differentiation is not psychological in origin; it is ontological. The moment information is registered relative to a system’s own state, awareness is present. Awareness does not require language, reflection, or conceptualization. It does not require semantic interpretation or symbolic manipulation.

It requires only that information be available to a system in a way that is internally differentiated from the rest of the informational environment. For this reason, awareness cannot be reduced to information alone. Nor can it be reduced to the quantity or complexity of information. A system may instantiate vast informational structure without awareness if none of that information is registered relative to the system itself. Awareness therefore marks a genuine ontological transition.

It is the point at which informational structure becomes perspectival. This transition is denoted as I → A. For boundary cases, stress tests, and illustrative analyses concerning awareness—including informational registration, zombies, gradualism, and artificial systems—see Appendix A. Part VI — Value