Frank Heile

We propose that consciousness arises from the Modeler-schema, a cybernetic control agent that monitors the brain’s Modeler as it constructs and updates an internal World Model. The theory distinguishes focal experience from diffuse awareness: focal attention targets—whether objects or concepts—produce focal experiences, while diffuse awareness is the conscious presence of the full sensory field. The Human agent comprises three cooperating agents—Modeler, Controller, and Targeter—each paired with a schema agent; however, qualia are generated only within the Modeler-schema. As part of its regulatory role, the Modeler-schema converts World Model contents into qualia and uses them for consistency checking and model refinement. The core empirical prediction is that, during saccades, the Modeler-schema compares pre- and post-saccadic visual qualia across the sensory field and may issue bottom-up attention requests when discrepancies are detected. A proposed saccadic consistency experiment tests this prediction by distinguishing Modeler-generated from Modeler-schema-generated attention requests.

Frank Heile holds SB and SM degrees in physics from MIT and a Ph.D. in high-energy physics from Stanford University. His thesis contributed to evidence later used in Martin Perl’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the tau lepton. He worked in software engineering, management, medical imaging R&D, and semiconductor engineering, and is named on 46 U.S. patents. He has followed consciousness research for more than 40 years and has presented earlier versions of his consciousness theory at multiple Towards a Science of Consciousness and other consciousness conferences.