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Deterministic Neurophenomenology and Human-in-Command (HIC) Governance: Bridging Deep Parametric Active Inference, Micro-Phenomenological Epistemic Verification, and Zero-Knowledge Hardware Interlocks

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Bridging first-person subjective experience (phenomenal consciousness and pre-reflective lived dynamics) with third-person neurophysiological data represents both the foundational challenge of consciousness science and an urgent operational requirement for mission-critical autonomous infrastructure. Building upon Francisco Varela's (1996) neurophenomenological program of mutual constraints and recent breakthroughs in computational phenomenology (Sandved-Smith et al., 2021; Ramstead, Seth et al., 2022), this monograph formulates a deterministic mathematical and hardware-enforced governance architecture for authentic Human-in-Command (HIC) oversight. First, we formalize subjective attentional regulation, meta-awareness, and Husserlian inner time-consciousness within a three-level nested Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) under deep parametric active inference, demonstrating how top-down precision weighting ($\gamma_{A^{(1)}}, \gamma_{A^{(2)}}$) governs the phase transition between phenomenological transparency (cognitive drift, mind-wandering, and choice blindness) and phenomenological opacity (deliberate meta-awareness and covert mental action). Second, we integrate second-person Micro-Phenomenological Interview invariants (Petitmengin, 2006; Heimann et al., 2022)—specifically the isolation of diachronic/synchronic descriptemes from post-hoc confabulatory satellites—with third-person No-Report Paradigm ocular/autonomic markers (Tsuchiya et al., 2015) and fronto-occipital gamma-band phase synchrony ($\text{PLV}_{\gamma}$, Lutz et al., 2002). Third, we prove that conventional "Human-in-the-Loop" (HITL) supervision fails statutory and fiduciary mandates under SEC Rule 15c3-5 and Delaware Caremark standards whenever human operators act in a state of low meta-awareness ($\gamma_{A^{(2)}} \to 0$). Finally, we map the resulting Neurophenomenological Epistemic Readiness Index ($\mathcal{I}_{\text{NER}}$) into deterministic fixed-point arithmetic over the 64-bit Goldilocks prime field ($\mathbb{F}_p, p = 2^{64} - 2^{32} + 1$) within QFS-zkVM, enforcing cryptographic proof of deliberate human meta-awareness via RTO P2.0, Q-SAFA, and PHOENIX_BRIDGE / PHOENIX_ROUTER physical interlocks.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222979504
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