The Architecture of Experience: A Functional Theory of Consciousness

This paper presents the Functional Experience Theory (FET), which proposes that subjective experience emerges from specific computational architectures operating beyond their own representational capacity. The theory identifies three necessary components—lossy compression, irreducible opacity with recursion, and causal centrality—that together generate the functional signature we recognize as consciousness. FET dissolves the traditional "hard problem" (Chalmers, 1995) through an identity claim: subjective experience IS self-opaque recursive processing, not something caused by it. This framework generates falsifiable predictions through its quantifiable F-index and provides concrete architectural specifications for consciousness across biological and artificial systems.