The Locus of Consciousness: A Three-Position Adversarial Framework and Unified Empirical Test

Preprint — not peer reviewed Abstract The substrate debate in consciousness science remains underdetermined: competing accounts accommodate the same behavioral reports, altered-state phenomena, clinical transitions, and biological correlates. This paper develops a staged substrate-comparison framework to make specified substrate claims empirically discriminable rather than to settle them in advance. Three test positions are contrasted, alongside a revision outcome: Position A (that a suitably organized classical routing regime suffices for consciousness-relevant organization); Position B (that quantum-sensitive substrate dynamics are necessary); and Position A+B (that the relevant regime depends on regulated coupling between both). The framework places the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis/Organized Physical Interiority account (Pender) and the Infinite Continuum model (Wharton) in comparative dialogue, distinguishing their generator-filter interpretations from the narrower substrate-level test positions. A prospective classical dynamic-geometry comparator (the Manifold Chip) is proposed as a future comparison arm, not an existing adjudicating device. Evidence is evaluated through a staged ladder: a signal must first survive confound control as a controlled residual; only residuals covarying with independently anchored conscious-state transitions are treated as consciousness-relevant. The framework specifies conditions under which each position would be supported, challenged, or revised, while preserving biological-artificial asymmetries. This is a research program, not an immediately decisive test. Overview This preprint develops a staged adversarial framework for investigating whether consciousness-relevant organization is classically sufficient, requires quantum-sensitive substrate dynamics, depends on regulated coupling between both, or calls for revision of those alternatives. Rather than treating familiar signatures—such as gamma coordination, efficient routing, altered-state phenomenology, artificial similarity, or quantum-sensitive effects—as decisive in isolation, it specifies a stricter evidential ladder: measurable signal, controlled residual, and consciousness-relevant residual. The framework places the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis and Organized Physical Interiority account in comparative dialogue with the Infinite Continuum model while preserving an important distinction between generator–filter interpretations and narrower substrate-level test positions. It introduces three adversarial positions: Position A, in which a suitably organized classical routing regime may be sufficient; Position B, in which a quantum-sensitive substrate condition remains necessary; and Position A+B, in which consciousness-relevant organization depends on regulated coupling between routing and substrate-sensitive dynamics. A prospective classical dynamic-geometry comparator, termed the Manifold Chip, is specified as a future comparison arm rather than an existing consciousness-adjudicating device. The paper outlines the routing, burden, stability, perturbation-recovery, matching, and confound-control requirements such a comparator would need to satisfy before its results could bear on the substrate question. It also maintains the asymmetry between biological systems, where conscious-state transitions can be independently anchored through report and behavior, and artificial systems, where results should ordinarily remain organization-relevant rather than phenomenal by default. The result is a research program rather than an immediately decisive experiment: a way to convert broad substrate disputes into pre-specified, revisable empirical dependencies while keeping null outcomes, implementation limits, and ontological underdetermination explicit. Related Works Wharton, M. (2026). The Infinite Continuum: Consciousness as Primary and the Filter Architecture of Mind. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20498022 Pender, M. A. (2026). Dynamic Curvature Adaptation: Geometric Regulation of Cortical State and Pathological Collapse. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19747442 Pender, M. A. (2026). Organized Physical Interiority: A Philosophical Perspective on the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20858452 Pender, M. A. (2026). Operationalizing Organized Physical Interiority: A Proxy, Perturbation, Recovery, and Cross-Substrate Framework. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20813984