The question “What is consciousness?” remains unresolved despite centuries of philosophical inquiry and decades of progress in neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and physics. Existing approaches typically attempt to explain consciousness either as a byproduct of neural activity, as an emergent property of complex computation, or as a purely subjective phenomenon resistant to scientific description. This paper proposes an alternative, system-oriented model of consciousness grounded in a software–architecture framework. In this model, consciousness is defined as the functional capability of a mind-software operating on a specific structural system, rather than as a substance, energy, or particle. We argue that both biological organisms and artificial systems can possess mind-like software and corresponding levels of consciousness, differing primarily in depth, architecture, and developmental origin. Human consciousness is shown to arise from a multi-layered structure consisting of a base organic system, a subconscious software layer, and a conscious software layer, where the sense of “I” (selfhood) emerges as a primary function of conscious processing. Experience is interpreted as stored information, while emotion is modeled as resonant activation patterns within the mind-software. The paper further introduces a graded model of consciousness development, spanning from rudimentary biological awareness to highly integrated universal consciousness, and proposes that biological evolution alone is insufficient to explain qualitative jumps in consciousness levels. Instead, evolution is framed as a partially guided process within a larger universe-level intelligent system. While remaining within a scientific and rational framework, this model remains open to future formalization, including mathematical representation. The aim is not to replace existing scientific theories, but to offer a coherent integrative framework capable of unifying consciousness studies across biology, artificial intelligence, psychology, and systems theory.
Sumeru Ray (Tue,) studied this question.