Locating Consciousness as a Puzzle Game From Proof by Absence to the Causal Structure of the Subjective Container

Abstract

This paper explores consciousness as a causal puzzle. Where an investigation of water molecules examines their properties, this inquiry follows the relations that sustain a whirlpool. It shifts from asking where consciousness is located in the brain to examining the underlying organization that supports higher-order brain functions, seeking to uncover a causal structure that can be described and investigated in engineering terms. The tools are Occam's principle and subtraction. Place a body, an environment, and conditions for continued existence on the board, then remove the relations one by one. What ceases to be possible when a relation is removed? This paper calls the method of narrowing down necessary causal roles through such removal "proof by absence." It seeks to excavate nature's underlying framework from the pieces that must remain, then advances a strong inference identifying that framework with the structure of the subject. Narrowing down roles and identifying their realization with the subject are separate steps. The conclusion is an inference based on causal correspondence and explanatory economy, whose validity remains open to further comparison and testing. Beginning with human language, self-awareness, or deliberation risks confusing mechanisms specific to higher-order abilities with the basic structure that makes a subject possible. This paper therefore starts with a system that maintains its body, acts upon the world, bears consequences, and continues. The more accurately a shared underlying structure is captured, the more broadly its application and predictions can extend across organisms, nervous systems, and artificial systems. What should be observed, what should be lost when a relation is removed, and what must be implemented? The success or failure of these predictions tests the framework uncovered. The aim of the puzzle is to infer the subject structure and identify the piece still missing. Through what mechanism does this subject feel its perceptions? Taking the inferred subject as a foundation, the paper clarifies the explanation required of an as-yet-unknown "theory of perceptual information becoming an experienced event." This perspective paper grew from a puzzle pursued through dialogue with generative AI by a disability welfare worker outside academic consciousness research, after first learning about the hard problem. It presents causal reasoning without experimental validation. Its contribution is to reconsider the explanatory level at which consciousness is sought, explore a framework capable of supporting broad application and prediction, and offer a perspective that sharpens the question about qualia.