This paper introduces Artificial F1, a computational framework that formalises a previously under-specified control layer in intelligent systems: pre-representational signal admission and valence structuring. Unlike standard approaches in reinforcement learning and attention-based architectures, which operate over a fixed input representation, Artificial F1 defines a gating operator F₁: S → S' that determines which signals constitute the effective task space prior to evaluation and learning. The framework yields testable predictions including improved sample efficiency under high-dimensional noise, energy savings under conditional higher-order processing, and a discontinuity in action-selection entropy at the gating threshold. The second contribution — developed in Section 11 — is Organizational Phenomenology: the claim that phenomenal properties such as certainty, unity, and immediacy are structural consequences of bounded selection architectures, not free-floating additions to physical processing. Phenomenal Inevitability, Selection Before Worldhood, and Actionable Compression Topology together constitute a framework in which the hard problem of consciousness is not dissolved but located — its source identified as the opacity that any coherent bounded system must maintain at its selection boundary. Full mathematical derivations, learning dynamics, convergence analysis, and empirical validation are developed in companion papers (Saka 2026c, 2026d): **Saka, H. (2026a-Parent).** Toward a Reframing of the Hard Problem of Consciousness: Subjective Reality, Feeling, andthe Origins of the Conceptual World. Version 7.19. PhilPapers. https://philpapers.org/rec/SAKTAR **Saka, H. (2026c-Theory).** Artificial F1: Full Computational Model — Selection Hardness, Non-Scalarizability, and Phase Transition in Bounded Evaluative Architectures. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20524004 **Saka, H. (2026d-Emperical).** Hard-Gating Collapse Dynamics: Selection Hardness as the Organizing Parameter for Robust Sparse Routing. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20523503 **Saka, H. (2026e-Discussion).** Beyond Binary Consciousness: Organizational Continuity Between Life and Mind. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20555383 Keywords: hard problem of consciousness, phenomenal consciousness, qualia, valence, organizational phenomenology, artificial F1, signal admission, bounded evaluative architecture, mechanism opacity, cognitive architecture, selection hardness
Hakan Saka (Fri,) studied this question.