Abstract
What distinguishes conscious information processing from other kinds of
information processing is its phenomenal aspect (PAC), the-what-it-is-like
for an agent to experience something. The PAC supplies the agent with
a sense of self, and informs the agent on how its self is affected by the
agent’s own operations. The PAC originates from the activity that attention
performs to detect the state of what I define “the self” (S). S is centered
and develops on a hierarchy of innate and acquired values, and is primarily
expressed via the central and peripheral nervous systems; it maps the agent’s
body and cognitive capacities, and its interactions with the environment. The
detection of the state of S by attention modulates the energy level of the
organ of attention (OA), i.e., the neural substrate that underpins attention.
This modulation generates the PAC. The PAC can be qualified according to
five dimensions: qualitative, quantitative, hedonic, temporal and spatial. Each
dimension can be traced back to a specific feature of the modulation of the
energy level of the OA.