Hacking the Hard Problem of Consciousness with the ‘Consciousness as Rich Information Theory’ (CRIT)

I introduce and defend the Consciousness as Rich Information Theory (CRIT), a novel framework grounded in both philosophical reasoning and empirical observation. CRIT builds on ideas from structuralism, Predictive Processing, and the Multiple Drafts Model to develop a unified physicalist account of consciousness. It partly resolves the Hard Problem of Consciousness by positing that phenomenal experience consists of Rich Information (RI)—subjective information that holds meaning for the cognitive process it influences—and partly dissolves it by arguing that the mystery of qualia stems from epistemic limitations and cognitive architecture. Predictive Processing is incorporated to explain valence—the subjective positivity or negativity of experience. CRIT also addresses several longstanding challenges, including the unity and continuity of experience, Libet’s experiments, blindsight, and split-brain phenomena. It contends that the continuity of consciousness is an illusion generated by memory threads that temporally organize discrete conscious events. The model accounts for unified experience by positing parallel, independent memory threads, with introspective access and reporting restricted to a primary thread—an architecture that aligns with established neurocognitive principles of memory organization and processing. While the precise neurobiological mechanisms remain to be established, they are amenable to empirical investigation. Finally, CRIT is critically compared with Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Higher-Order Thought Theories (HOT), and Global Workspace Theory (GWT). It is argued that CRIT accounts for a broader range of empirical and conceptual challenges, and potential experimental tests are outlined to distinguish CRIT from competing theories.