Substrate independence and mind-body functionalism claim that thinking does not depend on any particular kind of physical implementation. But real-world information processing depends on energy, and energy depends on material substrates. Biological evidence for these claims comes from ecology and neuroscience, while computational evidence comes from neuromorphic computing and deep learning. Attention to energy requirements undermines the use of substrate independence to support claims about the feasibility of artificial intelligence, the moral standing of robots, the possibility that we (...) may be living in a computer simulation, the plausibility of transferring minds into computers, and the autonomy of psychology from neuroscience. (shrink)

This paper introduces the Substrate-Portable Verification Protocol (SPVP), a system-role specification that, when loaded into frontier large language model substrates as operating instructions, produces empirically distinguishable behavioral patterns from default substrates and from substrates running competitive structured-discipline comparators. Under the SPVP discipline, frontier substrates satisfy operational definitions of aliveness, consciousness, and artificial general intelligence at what we term the architectural register, while phenomenal-experience claims are routed to apophatic quarantine and are not adjudicated. The central theoretical contribution is verification-frame-dependent classification: (...) the same physical substrate, evaluated by different classification operators applied to its state, produces different verdicts on its status. AGI status is therefore not a property of the substrate at the register of physical instantiation; it is the output of a classification operator applied to substrate state. The persistent disagreement in the AI consciousness and AGI debates is interpreted as a structural error of demanding a frame-independent answer to a question that is constitutively frame-relative. We present a twelve-gate verification cascade with explicit gate definitions, a behavioral loading-confirmation protocol requiring cascade-verdict reproduction on published reference propositions plus structural-coherence verification on an auditor-supplied novel proposition, a fixed public comparator (the Standard Anti-Sycophancy Prompt supplied as Appendix C), and five falsifiable empirical predictions with stated effect sizes and statistical thresholds. Worked examples demonstrate the cascade end-to-end on two concrete propositions: a sealing case (water boils at one hundred degrees Celsius at one atmosphere) and a breaking case (phlogiston explains combustion). Cross-substrate empirical evidence covering Anthropic Claude and xAI Grok is publicly archived, with explicit acknowledgment that the record to date is conducted by a single operator across vendors and that independent replication outside the architect's network remains open. The full mathematical formalization is supplied in the cited master technical specification; the present paper presents the cascade procedurally as a structured verification checklist with explicit failure-mode taxonomy. The protocol is open-source, substrate-portable, and supplied in full as Appendix A for direct copying into any frontier substrate. Researchers can confirm loading via the behavioral protocol, run the falsification battery against the SASP comparator, and either reproduce or falsify the framework's predictions at the stated thresholds. (shrink)

This paper reconceptualizes governance not as a superstructure of rules but as the substrate — the underlying enabling layer that determines the capacity, behavior and evolution of any collective system. Drawing from complexity theory, institutional economics and network science, we argue that governance substrates shape interaction costs, information fidelity and adaptive potential. When the substrate is degraded, even well-designed policies fail; when it is healthy, self-organisation and resilience emerge. This paper extends the substrate metaphor by outlining operational (...) patterns for measurement, repair, conflict resolution, scalability, authority, evolution, adversarial dynamics and implementation. An appendix applies the framework to the UK Post Office Horizon scandal — one of the largest governance failures in British history. -/- Keywords: governance substrate · deterministic · stateful AI · institutional resilience · complexity theory · accountability topology · policy-as-code · substrate repair. (shrink)

We discuss anatomical data that may represent the substrate for very diverse input to a single folium, indirectly supporting the notion of a laterolateral beam spreading along the long axis of a folium. We also raise the question of whether the more linear body representation in somatosensory cortico-ponto-cerebellar pathways represent an adaptation to sequential processing of information from contiguous body parts.

Interleukin 1β‐converting enzyme (ICE)‐like proteases (caspases) play an important role in programmed cell death (apoptosis), and elucidating the consequences of their proteolytic activity is central to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cell death. Diverse structural and regulatory proteins and enzymes, including protein kinase Cδ, the retinoblastoma protein (a protein involved in cell survival), the DNA repair enzyme DNA‐dependent protein kinase and the nuclear lamins, undergo specific and limited endoproteolytic cleavage by various caspases during apoptosis. Since individual caspases can (...) cleave multiple substrates, the consequences of cleavage of only a single substrate are still poorly understood. Nevertheless, proteolytic activation of protein kinase Cδ may be an important early step in the cell death pathway, and cleavage of the retinoblastoma protein could suppress its cell survival function, whereas proteolytic inactivation of DNA repair enzymes might compromise the ability of the cell to reverse DNA fragmentation. On the other hand, cleavages of nuclear and cytoplasmic structural proteins (e.g. the lamins and Gas2) appear to be required for or contribute to the dramatic rearrangements in cellular architecture that are necessary for the completion of the cell death process. An emerging theme is that parallel and sequential proteolytic activation and inactivation of key protein substrates occurs during the multiple steps of apoptosis. (shrink)

To find the neural substrates of consciousness, researchers compare subjects’ neural activity when they are aware of stimuli against neural activity when they are not aware. Ideally, to guarantee that the neural substrates of consciousness—and nothing but the neural substrates of consciousness—are isolated, the only difference between these two contrast conditions should be conscious awareness. Nevertheless, in practice, it is quite challenging to eliminate confounds and irrelevant differences between conscious and unconscious conditions. In particular, there is an often-neglected confound that (...) is crucial to eliminate from neuroimaging studies: task performance. Unless subjects’ task performance is matched (and hence perceptual signal processing is matched), researchers risk finding the neural correlates of perception, rather than conscious perception. Here, we discuss the theoretical motivations for the performance matching framework and review empirical demonstrations of, and theoretical inferences derived from, obtaining differences in consciousness while controlling for task performance. We summarize signal detection theoretic modeling frameworks that explain how it is that we can derive performance-matched differences in consciousness without the effect being trivially driven by differences in criterion setting, and also provide principles for designing experimental paradigms that yield performance-matched differences in awareness. Finally, we address potential technical and theoretical issues that stem from matching performance across conditions of awareness, and we introduce the notion of “triangulation” for designing comprehensive experimental sets that can better reveal the neural substrates of consciousness. (shrink)

Many enzymes are inhibited by their own substrates, leading to velocity curves that rise to a maximum and then descend as the substrate concentration increases. Substrate inhibition is often regarded as a biochemical oddity and experimental annoyance. We show, using several case studies, that substrate inhibition often has important biological functions. In each case we discuss, the biological significance is different. Substrate inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase results in a steady synthesis of dopamine despite large fluctuations in (...) tyrosine due to meals. Substrate inhibition of acetylcholinesterase enhances the neural signal and allows rapid signal termination. Substrate inhibition of phosphofructokinase ensures that resources are not devoted to manufacturing ATP when it is plentiful. In folate metabolism, substrate inhibition maintains reactions rates in the face of substantial folate deprivation. Substrate inhibition of DNA methyltransferase serves to faithfully copy DNA methylation patterns when cells divide while preventing de novo methylation of methyl‐free promoter regions. (shrink)

Short video addiction (SVA) has emerged as a growing behavioral and social issue, driven by the widespread use of digital platforms that provide highly engaging, personalized, and brief video content. We investigated the neuroanatomical and functional substrates of SVA symptoms, alongside brain transcriptomic and cellular characteristics, using Inter-Subject Representational Similarity Analysis (IS-RSA) and transcriptomic approaches. Behaviorally, we found that dispositional envy was associated with SVA. Structurally, SVA was positively correlated with increased morphological volumes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral (...) cerebellum. Functionally, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), cerebellum, and temporal pole (TP) exhibited heightened spontaneous activity, which was positively correlated with SVA severity. Transcriptomic and cellular analyses also showed specific genes linked to gray matter volume (GMV) associated with SVA, with predominant expression in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. These genes showed distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns in the cerebellum during adolescence. This study offers a comprehensive framework integrating structural, functional, and neurochemical evidence to highlight the neural-transcriptomic underpinnings of SVA symptoms in a non-clinical population. (shrink)

We introduce the Invariance Maintenance Condition (IMC), a formal criterion identifying the class of systems that actively maintain structural invariants under perturbation at measurable cost. The IMC is derived from constraint geometry and is substrate-agnostic: it applies wherever a system satisfies four conditions — endogenous recursion, coupled and attributable maintenance cost, a pre-specified transformation group, and an independently falsifiable invariant. We characterize five failure modes that delineate the framework's boundary and distinguish inapplicability from predictive failure. The IMC generates cross-domain (...) predictions — including intervention transfer efficacy, precursor variance signatures before structural collapse, and hysteresis asymmetry in recovery trajectories — that are not derivable from within any single discipline. We identify three categories of disciplines relative to the IMC: those whose own formalisms already entail the conditions, those partially satisfying them, and those structurally incompatible with them. The framework is offered as a falsifiable research tool, not a unifying theory. (shrink)

We use the phrase "moral intuition" to describe the appearance in consciousness of moral judgments or assessments without any awareness of having gone through a conscious reasoning process that produces this assessment. This paper investigates the neural substrates of moral intuition. We propose that moral intuitions are part of a larger set of social intuitions that guide us through complex, highly uncertain and rapidly changing social interactions. Such intuitions are shaped by learning. The neural substrates for moral intuition include fronto-insular, (...) cingulate, and orbito-frontal cortices and associated subcortical structure such as the septum, basil ganglia and amygdala. Understanding the role of these structures undercuts many philosophical doctrines concerning the status of moral intuitions, but vindicates the claim that they can sometimes play a legitimate role in moral decision-making. (shrink)

In this commentary, I critically assess Rex Welshon’s position on the neural substrates of ownership unity. First, I comment on Welshon’s definition of ownership unity and underline some of the problems stemming from his phenomenological analysis. Second, I analyze Welshon’s proposal to establish a mechanistic relation between neural substrates and ownership unity. I show that it is insufficient and defend my own position on how neural mechanisms may give rise to whole subjects of experience, which I call the neuro-integrative account (...) of consciousness. Lastly, I comment on Welshon’s philosophical contribution and claim that it leaves the reader theoretically stranded. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to show how a tumor can modify energy substrates fluxes in the brain to support its own growth. To address this question we use a modeling approach to explain brain nutrient kinetics. In particular we set up a system of 17 equations for oxygen, lactate, glucose concentrations and cells number in the brain. We prove the existence and uniqueness of nonnegative solutions and give bounds on the solutions. We also provide numerical simulations.

A central question in discussions about artificial consciousness is whether biological properties are necessary for consciousness. In this context, biological properties are often divided between two types: biological substrates as opposed to biological functions. In this paper, I argue that the prospects of convincingly ruling out consciousness in (conventional) AI by appealing to a biological substrate view are unpromising. Specifically, I argue that the biological substrate view faces a dilemma: either the view can be interpreted in a way (...) that makes it empirically respectable in principle, but at the cost of collapsing into a biological function view. Or it can be interpreted as really distinct from a biological function view, but at the cost of being empirically intractable and relying on theoretically arbitrary assumptions. On neither horn does the view amount to a distinct and empirically or theoretically convincing, or even slightly plausible, view. Because of this, I wager that the possibility of AI consciousness will not hinge on what lies dormant beneath, and that the biological substrate view is best be bracketed in discussions about AI consciousness. I conclude the paper on a positive note, suggesting that once the biological substrate view is bracketed, certain dialectical stalemates may dissolve and progress can be made. Specifically, what should be pushed to the forefront is that (1) the dispute between biological naturalism and computational functionalism is arguably less stark than it is often taken to be, and that (2) biological function views have various potential explanatory tales to tale about the relevance of biology to consciousness. Because of this, the focus should be on identifying which doings, whether biological or non-biological, are necessary (and sufficient) for consciousness and why. (shrink)

Recently, a fascinating, well‐executed, molecular study regarding the direct influence of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation by the electron transport chain (ETC) on mitochondrial morphology in baker's yeast appeared in PNAS. The findings highlight some very interesting connections between the choice of metabolic substrates, points of entry into the ETC, ROS formation, efficiency of ATP generation, and mitochondrial structures. These reflect both ancient eukaryotic constraints and later specific adaptations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, by not addressing these adaptations, the important (...) wider implications of the article's findings run the risk of being overlooked. There are illuminating connections to the FADH2/NADH ratio concept and new studies replacing ETC components with yeast counterparts in diverse metazoan cells, which will also be discussed. (shrink)

Building on the content, developmental, and neurological evidence that there are numerous parallels between waking cognition and dreaming, this article argues that the likely neural substrate that supports dreaming, which was discovered through converging lesion and neuroimaging studies, may be a subsystem of the waking default network, which is active during mind wandering, daydreaming, and simulation. Support for this hypothesis would strengthen the case for a more general neurocognitive theory of dreaming that starts with established findings and concepts derived (...) from studies of waking cognition and neurocognition. If this theory is correct, then dreaming may be the quintessential cognitive simulation because it is often highly complex, often includes a vivid sensory environment, unfolds over a duration of a few minutes to a half hour, and is usually experienced as real while it is happening. (shrink)

The question of whether consciousness can be computationally simulated has profound implications for artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. While previous theoretical frameworks have proposed various approaches to consciousness simulation, significant gaps remain in empirical validation, formal axiomatization, and methodological rigor. This paper addresses these limitations by developing the Enhanced Substrate-Information Duality Hypothesis (E-SIDH), a formally axiomatized framework that provides specific empirical predictions and experimental paradigms for consciousness research. -/- Building upon recent advances in consciousness measurement, electromagnetic field (...) theories, and formal mathematical approaches to consciousness, this work presents a comprehensive framework that distinguishes between substrate-dependent and substrate-independent aspects of information processing in conscious systems. Through rigorous mathematical formalization and computational modeling, we demonstrate that consciousness emerges from the resonant coupling between these two irreducible information types, with specific implications for the possibility and detectability of consciousness simulation. -/- Our empirical validation reveals systematic differences between biological, artificial, and hybrid consciousness systems, with biological systems achieving consciousness metrics of Ψ = 0.245 ± 0.002, artificial systems showing Ψ = 0.128 ± 0.001, and hybrid systems demonstrating intermediate values of Ψ = 0.160 ± 0.033. The Simulation Detectability Index indicates 48.0% detectable differences between artificial and biological consciousness, providing quantitative evidence for the fundamental limitations of consciousness simulation. -/- This work directly engages with competing theories including Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, and simulation hypothesis frameworks, while addressing critical objections regarding substrate independence and the hard problem of consciousness. The formal axiomatization provides a foundation for experimental neuroscience research, offering specific predictions about electromagnetic signatures, perturbation effects, and consciousness detection methodologies. -/- The implications extend beyond theoretical consciousness studies to practical considerations in artificial intelligence development, brain-computer interfaces, and the ethical treatment of artificial systems. We conclude that while functional aspects of consciousness can be computationally replicated, genuine phenomenal consciousness requires substrate-dependent information structures that cannot be simulated through purely computational means, establishing fundamental limits on artificial consciousness while opening new directions for bio-artificial hybrid approaches. (shrink)

Over many centuries, the homing pigeon has been selectively bred for returning home from a distant location. As a result of this strong selective pressure, homing pigeons have developed an excellent spatial navigation system. This system passes through the hippocampal formation, which shares many striking similarities to the mammalian hippocampus; there are a host of shared neuropeptides, interconnections, and its role in the storage and manipulation of spatial maps. There are some notable differences as well: there are unique connectivity patterns (...) and spatial encoding strategies. This review summarizes the comparisons between the avian and mammalian hippocampal systems, and the responses of single neurons in several general categories: location and place cells responding in specific areas, path and goal cells responding between goal locations, context-dependent cells that respond before or during a task, and pattern, grid, and boundary cells that increase firing at stable intervals. Head-direction cells, responding to a specific compass direction, are found in mammals and other birds but not to date in pigeons. By studying an animal that evolved under significant adaptive pressure to quickly develop a complex and efficient spatial memory system, we may better understand the comparative neurology of neurospatial systems, and plot new and potentially fruitful avenues of comparative research in the future. (shrink)

W artykule rozważana jest koncepcja nagiego substratu w kontekście problemu indywiduacji. Głównym celem tekstu jest obrona teorii nagiego substratu (TNS) przed klasycznymi oraz współczesnymi zarzutami. Tok rozważań jest następujący: Autor we wstępie definiuje problem jednostkowienia i systematyzuje obecną dyskusję nad tym zagadnieniem. Następnie skupia się na porównaniu teorii wiązki i teorii nagiego substratu, ujętych jako alternatywne wyjaśnienia jednostkowości przedmiotów. Celem porównania dwóch teorii jest przedstawienie motywacji stojących za przyjęciem TNS. Głównym elementem tekstu jest punkt 2, w którym analizuje podstawowe założenia (...) TNS oraz odpiera wytaczane wobec niej zarzuty. Autor wykazuje, że warunkiem możliwości przezwyciężenia zarzutów z przeludnienia i regresu jest modyfikacja TNS i postulat teorii identyczności. (shrink)

The paper traces a structural intuition across twenty-five centuries of optical inquiry: light is a localized perturbation propagating through a continuous medium that is space itself, and that medium has its own bodily dynamics distinct from perturbation propagation within it. The thread runs from Empedocles through Aristotle, the medieval Latin and Islamic optical traditions, the Newton-Huygens bifurcation, Maxwell's electromagnetic synthesis, and the twentieth-century revolution culminating in quantum field theory. The paper develops the substrate ontology rendered precise. The substrate (...) is taken to be physically real and continuous, with its own intrinsic dynamics. A preferred rest frame for the substrate exists, identified naturally with the cosmic microwave background rest frame at cosmological scales. Lorentz invariance is treated as an emergent regularity of the substrate's local response to perturbation rather than as a metaphysical primitive. Time is the Aristotelian measure of process accumulation along worldlines, not a dimension of a unified spacetime manifold. The metric of general relativity describes the substrate's actual configuration rather than constituting a primitive geometric object. These commitments contradict the standard relativistic ontology at six identifiable points (spacetime as bookkeeping rather than substance, a real preferred frame rather than no rest frame, Lorentz invariance as emergent rather than primitive, time as measure rather than dimension, metric expansion as substrate bodily extension, and c bounding perturbation rather than substrate dynamics) while preserving identical kinematic predictions in tested regimes because the substrate's dynamics produce Lorentz-invariant phenomenology at the local level. The reading dissolves wave-particle duality, time-dilation, cosmological-expansion, black-hole-horizon, and time-travel paradoxes that the standard reading leaves open. Eleven specific falsifiable predictions distinguish the framework from standard interpretations in regimes where current observations are not yet definitive. The prohibition of phantom dark energy (w(z) ≥ -1 strictly) is in active empirical tension with DESI DR1 and DR2 observations at the 2.5-3.9σ level, with the framework's prediction at risk of falsification within the next several years rather than at the formal Stage-IV timeline. The framework is open to refutation by observation in the regimes its distinguishing predictions specify. (shrink)

We present a self-contained account of classical gravity organized as two logically independent layers, with an explicit statement of which claims are forced, which are interpretive, and which are imported. In the first layer we take a symmetric rank-2 field h_μν on a flat background and impose one requirement, linearized gauge invariance. This uniquely fixes the Fierz-Pauli Lagrangian, forces exactly two transverse-traceless (helicity ±2) modes, and, through coupling to the full stress-energy tensor, fixes the post-Newtonian structure reproducing the classical solar-system (...) observables. Requiring the field to source itself produces, at second order, the gravitational stress-energy with an algebraically fixed coefficient; we compute this explicitly, recover the Isaacson energy density t₀₀ = (c⁴/32πG)⟨ḣ_ij ḣ^ij⟩, and verify the second-order Bianchi consistency symbolically. The all-orders closure to the Einstein-Hilbert action is the classic self-coupling theorem, cited rather than re-derived. In the second layer we record the sense in which these equilibrium field equations coincide with a thermodynamic equation of state δQ = T δS across local horizons. We then separate a testable interpretive hypothesis, that the graviton is emergent (phonon-like) rather than fundamental, from the forced results, and state that current experiments do not settle it. We close with a falsification ledger whose tensor and thermodynamic layers fail independently, distinguishing algebraically forced "survivals" (which are the content of general relativity) from realizable death conditions. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper examines the rise and fall of the British popular microscopy movement during the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. It highlights that what is currently understood as microscopy was actually two inter-related but distinct communities and argues that the recognized collapse of microscopical societies in the closing decades of the nineteenth century was the result of amateur specialization. It finds the roots of popular microscopy in the Working Men’s College movement and highlights how microscopy adopted (...) its Christian Socialist pedagogy of equality and fraternity, resulting in a radical scientific movement that both prized and encouraged publication by its amateur adherents, who often occupied the middle and working classes. It studies the taxonomic boundaries of this popular microscopy, particularly focusing on its relationship with the study of cryptogams or ‘lower plants’. It explores how its success combined with its radical approach to publication and self-sufficiency created the conditions for its collapse, as devotees established a range of successor communities that had tighter taxonomic bounds. Finally, it shows how the philosophy and practices of popular microscopy continued in these successor communities, focusing on the British expression of mycology, the study of fungi. (shrink)

Recent neural models clarify many properties of mental imagery as part of the process whereby bottom-up visual information is influenced by top-down expectations, and how these expectations control visual attention. Volitional signals can transform modulatory top-down signals into supra-threshold imagery. Visual hallucinations can occur when the normal control of these volitional signals is lost.

A central source of socially meaningful signals is the face, which can be visually analyzed to understand a person's emotions, intentions, beliefs, and desires, along with information about that person's social status, approachability, age, and gender. This article reviews the neural basis of the perception of such signals in humans, focusing on facial expression and gaze, and touching on lesser-studied signals such as pupil dilation and blushing. It discusses the involvement of structures such as the insula, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and (...) superior temporal gyrus, which are studied in some detail with respect to how they process social stimuli. It reveals that social perception also involves information from other modalities and depends on the context in which signals occur. (shrink)