# TNFR: Neuroscience & Consciousness (Recursive Resonance)

**Status**: Theoretical Framework  
**Version**: 0.0.1  
**Date**: November 29, 2025  

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## 1. The Hard Problem of Consciousness

Traditional neuroscience correlates brain activity with conscious experience but struggles to explain *why* physical processing feels like something. **TNFR** proposes a structural solution:

**Consciousness is Recursive Resonance.**

It is not the *processing* of information (Input $\to$ Output), but the *reverberation* of information (Input $\to$ Self $\to$ Self...).

### The Structural Definition
1.  **Qualia (Subjective Experience)**: The geometric shape of the **EPI (Evolving Pattern of Information)** within a closed resonant loop.
2.  **Attention**: The selective application of the **RA (Resonance)** operator to specific sub-networks, amplifying their coherence $C(t)$ above the noise floor.
3.  **Memory**:
    *   **Short-Term**: Active reverberation (Standing waves in the network).
    *   **Long-Term**: Structural plasticity (Permanent changes in coupling weights $K_{ij}$).

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## 2. The Mechanism of Thought

### Feed-Forward vs. Resonant Networks
*   **Zombie Mode (Feed-Forward)**: Stimulus $\to$ Processing $\to$ Action. No internal loop. The system acts but does not "know" it acts.
*   **Conscious Mode (Resonant)**: Stimulus $\to$ Loop $\to$ Action. The information circulates, allowing the system to query its own state.

### Hebbian Resonance (Plasticity)
The famous rule "Neurons that fire together, wire together" is derived from the **Coupling Operator (UM)**:
$$ \frac{dK_{ij}}{dt} = \alpha \cdot (1 - |\phi_i - \phi_j|) - \beta \cdot K_{ij} $$
*   If phases align ($\phi_i \approx \phi_j$), coupling strength $K_{ij}$ increases.
*   If phases drift, coupling decays.

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## 3. Simulation: The Minimal Conscious Network

We will simulate a small "Brain" with recurrent connections.

**Experiment Stages:**
1.  **Sensory Input**: We stimulate a specific pattern (e.g., "Vision of a Red Apple") into the input nodes.
2.  **Reverberation**: We remove the stimulus.
    *   A non-conscious network would immediately return to silence.
    *   A conscious (resonant) network will **hold the pattern** in its internal loops (Working Memory).
3.  **Plasticity**: We observe how the connections physically change to encode this memory.

**Expected Outcome**:
We expect to see the emergence of a **"Thought"**—a stable, self-sustaining pattern of activity that persists after the world has stopped providing it.
