Duality in Phenomenological Space: Calculable and Non-Calculable Aspects of Perception in Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT)

This article advances Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT) by formalizing a duality in phenomenological space, partitioning perceptual experience into calculable (invertible, geometry-based) and non-calculable (irreversible, qualia-based) components. Building on the thermodynamic foundation of RDRT—where phenomenal consciousness emerges as the obligatory halt in recursive self-prediction to avert energetic overload in the ~20 W human cortex (Attwell & Laughlin 2001)—we demonstrate how this duality, combined with phenomenal anti-entropy, unifies qualia, selfhood, free will, and language origins. Language evolves as reusable labels for these anti-entropic boundaries, with symbolic thought arising from cached refusals. Subjective mental temperature (T_M) quantifies refusal depth, predicting correlated shifts in phenomenal intensity. The framework resolves Jackson's knowledge argument by framing qualia as non-invertible thermodynamic traces. To illuminate counterintuitive refusal dynamics, we introduce metaphorical concepts—including phenomenal anti-entropy as the "struggle that feels itself" and anti-blinking as deferred erasure—yielding refined predictions for EEG entropy and clinical states. Finally, radial extensions generalize refusal hierarchies across quantum, biotic, and cosmic scales, analogizing cortical criticality to a phenomenal vacuum and positioning consciousness as a localized echo of universal resistive boundaries. Grounded in predictive processing and active inference, this extended RDRT offers a parsimonious, falsifiable paradigm with implications for consciousness measurement, artificial phenomenology, and negative ontology.