Text: A Model for Consciousness I have elsewhere shown (in The Reflexive Universe) that since the quantum of action is an oscillation or rotation at a certain frequency, we can view each cycle of that rotation as a cycle of action that goes through different phases. Note that this emphasis differs from the usual treatment of light as electromagnetic frequency or wavelength. The frequency, or cycles per second, is a property or quantity that can be measured and is extrinsic, whereas the position in the cycle is essentially qualitative, indeterminate, and intrinsic. Were we to think only in terms of frequency, we would have no more reason for associating electromagnetism with consciousness than we would have for associating billiard balls with consciousness, and we could retain the view that all matter is mechanical or electrical and has no relation to consciousness. But what is consciousness? Obviously it is not a thing. Bertrand Russell said that the class of elephants was not an elephant. In somewhat the same sense, the consciousness of a thing is not a thing, that is, an object in space-time. In fact, one could say that consciousness is what you have when you don't have something. For most actions consciousness is not necessary. It is when intention is not followed automatically by its fulfillment that consciousness ensues. The nature of consciousness becomes clear if we consider cyclings or frequency, as distinct from positions in the cycle. In the case of sound, the note middle C is about 500 cycles per second (cps). If we lower the frequency about five octaves, we can still hear a frequency of 16 cps, about the lowest we can hear as a tone. A still lower frequency becomes a rattle. Imagine the frequency so low that we could watch the violin string moving from one extreme to another. Now imagine that our life spans were shorter than the period of the string. We might see the string beginning as a straight line, get more and more bent, and not know how far it will go, much as we watch the stock market go up and wonder when to sell. At some point it would stop going up and begin to fall. Only after a half-cycle could we begin to form some consciousness of the cyclic behavior of stocks, during which time we might have lost our savings, committed suicide, or even doubled our investment. This uncertainty is involved in any cycle that is longer than a person's comprehension, and constitutes the part of life that takes our attention. It is these longer cycles that are of concern, that occupy our consciousness. Shorter, repeating cycles become objects of consciousness, and we don't worry about them. As with sound, the repeating cycle is heard as a single note. Thus each day has its dawn, its noon, and its nightfall; we don't worry about the day ending because there will be a new day tomorrow. Repetition makes it possible to define limits and hence turn unknowns into knowns, freeing consciousness for new problems. It is the same throughout nature. The high frequencies characteristic of atoms absorbing and radiating photons in a gas are subsumed by lower frequencies corresponding to the binding energy of molecules, and these in turn by still lower frequencies characteristic of cells and multicellular organisms. There is thus a hierarchy of frequencies, with the lower frequencies, or longer periods, controlling the higher. Planck established that energy times time is an invariant, Planck's constant, h. Thus a longer time is associated with lower energy. Evolution proceeds by a degradation of energy from nuclear particles, with an energy of one billion electron volts, through atoms and on to organic molecules with about 1/25 of an electron volt, the energy of a particle in the temperature range that can support life. The organic molecules responsible for life processes such as metabolism thus are associated with units of action that have very low energy. These quanta constitute a bath of free energy upon which the vital energy can draw. But why should life begin only after this enormous reduction of energy has occurred? The answer is that the lower energy is the price paid to get more time. That which has the longer time cycle can control cycles shorter than its own. At the molecular level, this makes it possible for the vital energy to avail itself of a wide range of materials for the initiation and direction of the life process. This becomes apparent if we think of a cycle of action as a learning cycle. The learning cycle has four phases. It begins with (1) a spontaneous or unconscious action, such as a child reaching out and touching a hot stove. The pain causes (2) immediate withdrawal, or unconscious reaction, followed by (3) an awareness that the stove caused pain, a conscious reaction, followed by (4) future avoidance of hot stoves, a conscious action¸or control. Thus the child learns. If the experience is not learned, the cycle repeats until it is, after which the child moves to a higher level involving more complex or longer-term cycles, always incorporating what he or she has learned and building a hierarchy of automatic reactions controlled by the brain. Consciousness is always at the leading edge of that growth process, always pressing on. This lays the basis for higher consciousness. There is a consciousness appropriate for each level of interaction, from that of nuclear particles to that of the higher organisms, and there is no reason to suppose that it stops there. It is important to point out that the learning cycle includes consciousness and action. No matter how expert we become, we still have something to learn, and that learning or consciousness comes only after an exploratory action has exposed some error. We can then rectify the action and get on with it. The physicist may not be good at philosophy, but he or she can at least make mistakes and possibly learn from them. The philosopher has no way to recognize whether a mistake has been made. The vocabulary of science has shown us that intention has a proper place in the formalism of physics, and by emphasizing the cycle of action it becomes possible to obtain a model for the growth of consciousness, and with it the evolution of life.

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