posted 28th December 2025
Institute of Black Nobility (IoBN)
Doctoral Dissertation Proposal
Atomic Proto-Consciousness: A Functional Re-Examination of Awareness, Information, and Responsiveness from Linguistic, Neurological, and Quantum Perspectives
Candidate:
Dr Sakenoye II Salseena Tamuramaro
Degree Sought:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Field:
Foundations of Science | Philosophy of Mind | Philosophy of Physics
Supervisory Division:
Institute of Black Nobility – Faculty of Advanced Ontology & Fundamental Sciences
1. Introduction
The problem of consciousness occupies a singular position in modern thought. While the physical sciences have successfully reduced matter, energy, and information to mathematically tractable systems, consciousness remains resistant to definitive explanation. Dominant paradigms continue to treat consciousness as either an emergent by-product of neural complexity or an epistemic illusion generated by higher-order cognition.
This dissertation challenges the sufficiency of both positions.
Rather than approaching consciousness as a mysterious substance or as an inexplicable threshold phenomenon, this research reframes consciousness functionally-as the capacity of a system to absorb, register, and respond to environmental information. This definition is not speculative; it is already embedded within clinical neurology, linguistic practice, and physical theory, though rarely unified across disciplines.
The central claim of this dissertation is not that atoms think, intend, or experience subjectivity, but that the absolute exclusion of atomic and subatomic systems from possessing any proto-conscious attributes is philosophically unjustified and scientifically unnecessary.
2. Methodological Framework
This dissertation employs an interdisciplinary analytic methodology, integrating:
Linguistic-epistemological analysis
Clinical neurological operational standards
Contemporary quantum physical theory
Philosophical evaluation of emergence and reduction
The approach is deliberately non-metaphysical. No appeal is made to spirituality, vitalism, panpsychist mysticism, or anthropomorphic projection. Instead, the inquiry is constrained by functional criteria already accepted within empirical disciplines.
3. Linguistic Foundations: Awareness in Classical Arabic Epistemology
Classical Arabic offers an unusually precise semantic framework for consciousness through the root وَعَى (waʿā), from which terms such as وَعْي (waʿy) and توعية (tawʿiya) are derived.
Crucially, these terms do not denote introspection, self-reflection, or identity. They denote:
Absorption of information
Environmental attunement
Situational responsiveness
In Arabic medical usage, the question:
هل هو واعٍ؟
Is he aware?
does not inquire into personality or cognition, but whether the subject is registering and responding to stimuli.
This linguistic structure anticipates modern neurological definitions of consciousness by centuries and demonstrates that awareness has historically been understood as operational, not metaphysical.
4. Neurological Operational Definitions of Consciousness
In contemporary clinical neurology, consciousness is assessed using functional criteria, not subjective reports. A patient is considered conscious if they demonstrate:
Wakefulness
Environmental awareness
Responsiveness to stimuli
No requirement exists for abstract reasoning, self-narrative, or reflective thought.
This operational model is significant: neurology already defines consciousness as graded and functional, not binary or mystical. Coma, vegetative states, minimally conscious states, and full alertness exist on a continuum.
The implication is unavoidable: consciousness is not defined by what a system is, but by what it does.
5. Quantum Systems and Functional Responsiveness
Quantum mechanics reveals that at the most fundamental level, physical systems exhibit behaviors that are:
Context-dependent
Information-sensitive
Environmentally responsive
Examples include:
Wave-function collapse upon interaction
Quantum entanglement across spatial separation
Probabilistic outcome resolution based on measurement context
Non-interference within stable atomic
structures
These behaviors demonstrate that atomic systems do not behave blindly or randomly. They behave lawfully and responsively, adjusting state relative to informational conditions.
This responsiveness does not require cognition, intention, or awareness in the human sense-but it satisfies the minimal functional criteria established earlier.
6. Proto-Consciousness Defined
This dissertation introduces proto-consciousness as a strictly limited concept:
Proto-consciousness refers to the minimal functional capacity of a system to register, integrate, and respond to environmental information in a rule-governed manner.
This definition explicitly excludes:
Subjectivity
Self-awareness
Emotion
Intentionality
Proto-consciousness is not mind. It is the precondition upon which mind becomes possible.
7. Critique of Emergence-Only Models
Emergence-based theories claim that consciousness appears only once matter reaches sufficient complexity. However, these models fail to explain:
Why responsiveness exists prior to emergence
How non-conscious matter suddenly yields awareness
Where the threshold of emergence is located
Why emergence should generate consciousness rather than mere complexity
Emergence describes when consciousness appears, not how or why it becomes ontologically novel.
A graded model avoids this explanatory gap by recognising continuity rather than rupture.
8. A Graded Ontological Model of Consciousness
This dissertation proposes the following continuum:
Quantum Responsiveness – information-sensitive state change
Biological Awareness – integrated sensory responsiveness
Cognitive Awareness – symbolic processing
Reflective Consciousness – self-modeling and identity
Only levels 3 and 4 involve what is commonly called “mind.” However, levels 1 and 2 already satisfy the functional definition of awareness.
Arabic epistemology, clinical neurology, and physics converge precisely at these foundational levels.
9. Implications
This framework has implications for:
Philosophy of mind (resolving the hard problem’s framing error)
Foundations of physics (information realism)
Artificial intelligence (non-sentient awareness models)
Ethics of observation and measurement
Ontological continuity between matter and mind
Importantly, it avoids the errors of both reductive materialism and speculative panpsychism.
10. Conclusion
The central failure of contemporary consciousness studies lies not in data scarcity, but in conceptual misclassification. Consciousness has been treated as an all-or-nothing phenomenon rather than a graded functional capacity.
By integrating linguistic insight, neurological practice, and quantum theory, this dissertation demonstrates that proto-consciousness is conceptually permissible, empirically grounded, and philosophically necessary.
Atoms do not think.
They do not intend.
They do not experience.
But they respond, and responsiveness is the first principle of awareness.
11. Original Contribution
This dissertation contributes:
A non-mystical theory of proto-consciousness
A linguistically grounded operational definition of awareness
A graded ontological model bridging physics and mind
A defensible alternative to emergence-only accounts