Feedback Primacy II: Consciousness, Inner Speech, and the Limits of Predictive Processing

This paper advances the Feedback Primacy Theory by extending its central claim—that consciousness arises from ongoing feedback regulation—into the domains of thought, inner speech, and cognitive organization. Building on the biological foundation established in the first paper, this work examines how conscious activity can be understood without appealing to predictive models or hierarchical inference. Rather than treating the mind as a system guided by internal simulations, the paper explores how moment-to-moment feedback across neurons, regions, and the whole organism can generate the coherence traditionally attributed to prediction. By contrasting this feedback-based view with predictive-processing accounts, the paper clarifies where the two frameworks diverge and develops a broader picture of consciousness grounded in continuous, self-updating activity.