Distributed Consciousness Models Are Wrong

A Simple But Powerful Way to Understand Consciousness

Distributed means that consciousness has physical size. This assumption is not correct. The easiest way to understand consciousness is to see that it operates in space exactly like it operates in time.

- Consciousness in time: a single point - experiencing one moment at a time. If consciousness were distributed across time, we would see echos of reality.
- Consciousness in space: a single point - experiencing a full spatial environment without being extended across it.

The symmetry is elegant: consciousness is always 0D, whether in space or in time, and memory/space-time provides the extended structure that consciousness can perceive or navigate. Any model that treats consciousness as spread out or coextensive with memory violates this phenomenological evidence.

Consciousness is the Inverse of Memory

Consciousness exists as a singular, 0D point - an apex with no spatial or temporal extent. It experiences reality from this precise point, never spreading across space or time. Memory, by contrast, forms the extended 3D (and temporal) structure that consciousness perceives. In every moment, consciousness intersects this structure at a single point, giving rise to experience.

This symmetry between space and time ensures that:

1. Consciousness perceives space without occupying it.
2. Consciousness experiences a flowing present without overlapping past or future moments.
3. A lifetime of experiences can exist within memory while remaining fully accessible to the 0D point of awareness.

In short, consciousness is always a point; memory and space-time provide the extended substrate through which that point perceives and navigates reality.