It from Consciousness II (HIOF•IfC II) — Paper III: The Prime Transaction

Holographic Information Ontological Framework - It from Consciousness II (HIOF- IfC II): The Transactional Substrate Beneath Consciousness Many people, when they hear the word “subconscious,” immediately think of Freud’s iceberg metaphor: everyday conscious thought is only the tip above the water, while a larger hidden layer lies beneath it. This series uses “substrate beneath consciousness” in a different sense. Here, “sub” does not refer to a hidden mental layer, but to the fundamental transactional structure of reality — the rules and processes that make consciousness possible. Consciousness is therefore not an added feature of a finished physical world, but a specific, high-density configuration of reflexive transactions within a three-layer architecture: L1 Source, L2 Protocol, and L3 Manifestation. This series reverses the usual picture by starting from the transactional substrate itself and showing how consciousness emerges as one mode of operation within it. The nine papers address two central questions: how the first transaction occurs within the undivided Source, and why a homogeneous substrate gives rise to such diverse forms, from stone and stars to organisms and reflective minds. The series develops a minimal transactional ontology. L1 (Source) is undifferentiated potential; L2 (Protocol) is the syntax governing admission, propagation, and irreversible inscription into a causal Ledger; L3 (Manifestation) is frozen legibility, where transactional history becomes stable form. Key results include the first transaction as Source’s reflexive self-division, the emergence of time’s arrow from Ledger irreversibility, the explanation of material diversity through divergent transactional histories on one homogeneous substrate, consciousness as a three-tier spectrum of reflexive density, and sovereignty as the bounded capacity of a reflexive subject to intervene in the Ledger that constitutes it. An accompanying Appendix collects contemporary scientific echoes, including Breit–Wheeler pair production and feedback-based decision formation in early sensory cortex, as structural precedents while distinguishing ontological claims from empirical proof. The framework offers a concise alternative to substance-first materialism and field-only idealism. It provides a way to discuss consciousness as a form of manifestation within a transactional ontology, while maintaining a cautious distinction between ontological proposal and empirical validation. Keywords: transactional ontology, L1-L2-L3 architecture, causal ledger, prime transaction, self-division, substrate homogeneity, morphological divergence, reflexive loop, sovereignty, interface theory of perception, HIOF, IfC, Time Ocean Model AuthorWai-Hung Tam (Pan)Independent ResearcherORCID: 0009-0002-7789-8464Email: panxtam@protonmail.com