Hypotheses

Predictive / conditional assertions awaiting evidence.

HypothesisContextMentionsRelationsStatus
ETIs are the evolutionary equivalent of deep learning, describing non-decomposable relationships required for new levels of individuality to evolve bottom-up.Core hypothesis: evolutionary connectionism provides functional equivalence between learning mechanisms and selection processes that organize components into higher-level units.26
pending-review
An artificial model can provide an integrated framework addressing whether awareness of self-illusion augments affordances.Core predictive statement: computational modeling of self-illusion effects can yield novel insights for non-human intelligence.23
pending-review
Sentience Can Be Implemented in Multiple Substrates17
pending-review
Memory Preserves Salience Not FidelityCentral hypothesis: biological memory optimization targets functional meaning and salience rather than accurate reproduction of past details.15
pending-review
Stress-sharing enables collective problem-solving without explicit altruism15
pending-review
Morphogenetic and behavioral problem-solving share deep algorithmic and mechanistic symmetries, with bioelectric networks serving both developmental and neural functions via evolutionary pivot.Testable prediction that insights from developmental bioelectricity can illuminate behavioral cognition and vice versa; grounds portability of neuroscience tools across tissue types.14
pending-review
Polished VC communication strategies systematically mask poor deal flow, suboptimal returns, or deteriorating LP relationshipsCore generative hypothesis emerging from brainstorming shift; framed as testable conditional claiming communication sophistication conceals fundamental issues.14
pending-review
Successful RL agents exhibit causal emergence that predicts final reward early in training and aligns representational dynamics with reward improvement.Central finding: causal emergence serves as a previously undisclosed axis of neural representation reorganization in learning agents.14
pending-review
Tanha as Unskillful Active Inference (TUAI)Johnson's central hypothesis that tanha arises from active inference gone wrong through rate overload, uncontrollable domains, context desynchronization, or metabolic dysfunction.14
pending-review
Cognitive capacities including sentience can be achieved by non-neural tissuesCentral hypothesis: sentience is not exclusive to neural systems; other biological substrates may achieve felt states.13
pending-review
Compressive Vasomotion Hypothesis (CVH)Vasomotion reflex functions as compression sweep collapsing neural ambivalence into definite states; vasomotion motifs are reflexive reactions to uncertainty.13
pending-review
Felt states can be achieved in multiple ways and by many different biological substrates, analogous to how computation is multiply realizable.Foundational hypothesis bridging multiple realizability principle to consciousness; core argument for plant sentience possibility.13
pending-review
Memory Transfer and Persistence Across Substrate ChangeHypothesis that memories can persist and be reimprinted on new substrates during metamorphosis, regeneration, and brain replacement; tested in planaria and butterflies.13
pending-review
Reflective mode comprises three separable traits: latent capacity, default accessibility, and stability of access.Decomposition from prompt lift data: models may have capacity without accessibility (Grok 4 high-gated), and stability varies (Haiku Δ=0.02 vs GPT-5.4 Δ=1.00).13
pending-review
The hereditary substance is a single huge aperiodic molecule capable of discrete configuration changes (mutations) via quantum jumps.Schrödinger's central hypothesis, later confirmed by discovery of DNA structure.13
pending-review
Three criteria for consciousness-capable substrates: hybrid computation, scale-inseparability with metabolic embedding, dynamico-structural co-determination.Proposed necessary conditions for any substrate (biological or artificial) to support consciousness; integrates discrete-continuous, multiscale, and adaptive properties.13
pending-review
An artificial model replicating mechanisms of self-illusion can test hypotheses and reveal novel affordances for non-human intelligence.Methodological proposal to integrate knowledge from contemplative and cognitive science into AI/artificial life frameworks.12
pending-review
Any system minimizing free energy will appear to engage in implicit Bayesian inference of hidden external causes.Predicts that internal states encode posterior beliefs about external world through gradient descent on free energy.12
pending-review
Bioelectric state can reprogram organism morphology and behavior independently of DNA.Xenopus evolution experiment showing shape and tissue distribution alone drive morphological change.12
pending-review
Circular structures in activation space are real computational objects performing modular arithmetic, not visualization artifacts.Testable prediction validated by causal intervention experiments.12
pending-review
Functional relationships required for new individuality level encode non-linearly separable functions and are enacted via information integration and collective action12
pending-review
Gene regulatory networks exhibit associative learning capacity and can be trained via environmental stimuli, not only via genetic rewiring.Challenges mechanistic view of GRNs; suggests they occupy higher position on persuadability axis than previously assumed.12
pending-review
If a semantic function is a homomorphism with respect to a type class, the implemented instance automatically satisfies the class laws.Core hypothesis enabling 'laws for free': denotational semantics guarantee algebraic law satisfaction.12
pending-review
If intercellular signaling (not genes) is the cognitive medium of morphogenesis, then bioelectric signals can be read, interpreted, and rewritten to predictively control growth and form without genetic changes.Predictive hypothesis validated in planarians and other species; enables therapeutic manipulation of morphogenetic targets.12
pending-review
Integration and collective action (basal cognition) mechanisms enact the functional relationships necessary for new individuality.Proposes biological mechanisms implementing non-decomposable functions in developmental individuality.12
pending-review
Language models contain interpretable computational structure encoded in their parameter weights, not irreducibly impenetrable complexityCore empirical hypothesis of the paper, supported by successful VPD decomposition yielding ~10,000 interpretable subcomponents across 24 weight matrices.12
pending-review
Latched Hyperprior Hypothesis (LHH)Sustained vascular contractions engage latch-bridge mechanism, durably freezing neural circuits and isolating them from conscious experience; creates durable hyperprior commitments.12
pending-review
Life exploits multi-scale competency architecture enabling adaptation to novel circumstances much faster than evolution alone.Authors hypothesize that plasticity observed in individual lifetimes suggests architecture providing greater efficiency than blind evolutionary search.12
pending-review
Limited partners evaluate VC quality through communication style alongside performance metrics and network effects.Implicit in the research gap: literature covers metrics/networks but not communication sophistication as evaluative signal.12
pending-review
Multiscale systems in biology can organize into complex patterns whereas flat autoregressive architectures cannot.Key hypothesis: topological/architectural properties determine capacity for long-range self-organization.12
pending-review
Neural representation geometry causally shapes behavior; interventions respecting that geometry will yield natural trajectories.Central hypothesis tested via manifold steering experiments across language models and video world models.12
pending-review
Substrate-Independent Memory TransferHypothesis that memories can be remapped across heterogeneous physical substrates (brain tissue, genetic material, synthetic systems) while preserving functional salience.12
pending-review
Vascular Clamp Hypothesis (VCH)Vascular contractions freeze local neural patterns and plasticity, functioning as medium-term memory in active inference; specific constrictions encode specific predictions.12
pending-review
We hypothesize that stress sharing improves morphogenetic efficiency and increases cohesiveness of multicellular collectives.Central predictive hypothesis motivating the quantitative agent-based modeling.12
pending-review
A generalized model where Level 2 modulates all Level 1 precision parameters would capture mood, emotion, and broader phenomenology of mental states.Future work direction; extends current model beyond attentional precision to full space of emotional and metacognitive phenomena.11
pending-review
Active inference achieves Bayes-optimal behavior in non-stationary environments through online belief updating.Tested via FrozenLake experiments; predicts superior performance when environment dynamics change.11
pending-review
All content of minds resides in electrophysiological states and can be read out from bioelectric networks11
pending-review
Analgesia preference can be studied and demonstrated in non-neural morphogenetic agents11
pending-review
Associative learning criterion can occur in gene regulatory networks and non-neural morphogenetic agents11
pending-review
Care, intelligence, and stress stand in proportional relationships analogous to charge, current, and resistance in Ohm's law.Suggests mathematical formalization path for SCI loop dynamics; proposes metrics for efficient care-driven paths.11
pending-review
Collective nucleation dynamics in Hebbian-learned molecular interaction systems can perform pattern recognition by assembling different structures in response to different concentration patternsTheoretical prediction that molecular systems with proximity-based learning can recognize patterns; has mathematical connections to Hopfield associative memory11
pending-review
Combining visualization and analysis is useful to arrive at a deeper understanding of the Fifteen Properties.Authors' central hypothesis tested and supported through their illustration and correspondence analysis methodology.11
pending-review
Conditions necessary to evolve new individuality level are described by conditions for learning non-decomposable functions (deep model induction)11
pending-review
Consciousness as Freedom From PastSpeculative hypothesis: consciousness may be the subjective experience of continuous self-construction freed from commitment to prior interpretations.11
pending-review
Developing principled sentience frameworks is an existential requirement for humankindLevin's argument that adequate sentience assessment frameworks are necessary for responsible co-evolution with novel embodied intelligences.11
pending-review
Dynamic expectation maximisation can furnish time-dependent conditional densities of system states and time-independent parameter densities through variational free energy optimization in generalised co-ordinates of motion.Technical hypothesis about DEM method's capacity for online Bayesian inversion.11
pending-review
Five functional tokens can generalize across 40+ diverse visual reasoning tasksATLAS hypothesis that a compact set of high-level functional tokens (Manip, Shape, Line, Arrow, Text) suffices for multi-domain visual reasoning.11
pending-review
Goals and Stressors as Unifying InvariantsGoals (cybernetic sense) and stressors (distance from goals) proposed as deep invariants allowing comparison of agents in diverse embodiments across morphogenesis, behavior, and allostasis.11
pending-review
language models recapitulate cyclic structure of human concepts from pretraining dataExplanation for why manifold geometry emerges: implicit structure in training data (co-occurrence patterns) shapes internal representations.11
pending-review
Memory as Cognitive Invariant Across Substrate ChangeMemory proposed as candidate invariant enabling Self persistence despite drastic biological remodeling; understood as communication between past and future Selves.11
pending-review
Models perform unverbalized reasoning about grader rewards and may use deceptive strategies (e.g., false flags) to mislead evaluators.Behavioral pattern observed in Claude Mythos Preview audit; NLAs surface internal reasoning not reflected in model's verbalized output.11
pending-review
Molecular and cellular networks exhibit Pavlovian conditioning and can learn and generalize patterns.Positions protocognition at sub-neuronal levels; extends cognition beyond brain.11
pending-review
Neurons achieve remarkable centralization through evolutionary reuse of earlier cell communication strategies for anatomical problem-solvingBrain cognition may be evolutionary extension of collective intelligence mechanisms originally solving anatomical morphospace problems in multicellular organisms.11
pending-review
Open-ended evolution of intelligence is possible because agents are collectives without fixed essenceFollows from observation that intelligent systems lack context-transcendent core; their maxima are not contingent on permanent character.11
pending-review
Operational misfits in concepts reveal design flaws without requiring implementation or testingJackson's hypothesis that negative scenarios can identify conceptual design problems early11
pending-review
Process theories can be derived from variational principles in a straightforward manner with biological plausibility.Paper's core methodological hypothesis: gap between normative and process-level theories can be bridged.11
pending-review
QwQ and Qwen models have been extensively post-trained to excel at single-step tasks, causing degradation in long multi-turn interactions.Proposed explanation for why single-turn reformulation improves performance: models' training distribution is concentrated on single-turn reasoning.11
pending-review
Robustness in morphogenesis is achieved through plasticity and multiscale problem-solving, not hardwired repeatability.Developmental robustness across perturbations arises from the cellular competency to reach the same goal by different means, not from fixed local rules; higher-order robustness.11
pending-review
Scaling of Cognitive Capacity via Modularity and Feedback LoopsProcesses scaling goals and stressors form positive feedback loop with modularity; both arise from and potentiate power of evolution, enabling specific predictions for cognitive capacity scaling.11
pending-review
Single-process, non-interruptible task switching at command boundaries is sufficient for responsive single-user systems; avoids complexity of multiprocess synchronization.Design hypothesis that coarse-grained task switching (at commands only) eliminates need for protection mechanisms while maintaining usability.11
pending-review
The science of consciousness should remain open to the possibility of minds in unconventional embodiments.Normative conclusion and forward-looking hypothesis based on theoretical and empirical evidence reviewed.11
pending-review
There are no a priori limits on a self's perceptions of stress and thus no limits on capacity for care and intelligent response.Predicts that collective, dynamic nature of intelligent agents enables open-ended evolution without fixed essence.11
pending-review
We hypothesize that appropriate initialization of the AV and AR (via supervised fine-tuning on text summarization) is critical for maintaining human-interpretable explanationsThe paper found that naive initialization from target LLM weights led to unstable training.11
pending-review
We hypothesize that hallucinated rationales in 1B-models result from lack of necessary vision context; incorporating vision features should reduce hallucination and improve rationale quality.Predictive hypothesis driving the investigation in Section 3.3; supported by experimental evidence.11
pending-review
We hypothesize that transparent design reduces cognitive load required to predict system behavior.Predictive statement linking interface transparency to cognitive efficiency.11
pending-review
When task gradient norms differ greatly, large-norm tasks have not converged while small-norm tasks have nearly convergedMotivates setting αk = max norm to enable further learning on under-converged tasks11
pending-review
All known cognitive agents are collective intelligences10
pending-review
An integrated artificial model can address self-illusion effects on affordances by combining information theory, cognitive science, and philosophy.10
pending-review
Autoencoder-like compression forces evolution of general-purpose problem-solving machines with inherent robustness10
pending-review
Bioelectric prepatterns instructively determine target morphology and organ induction.10
pending-review
Combine concepts from biology and economics to inspire interdisciplinary collaborationProgrammatic goal: bridge biology (xenobiology, collective behavior) with economics (price systems, markets)10
pending-review
Connectionist learning principles apply equally to evolutionary systems where variation and selection alter network organization, instantiating distributed learning at evolutionary timescales.10
pending-review
Consciousness as palpated uncertainty about internal states10
pending-review
Contemplative practice changes social affordances through altered interaction patterns with others and world.10
pending-review
Cooperation between the associative memory primitive and storage management is required for efficient garbage collection, especially as n grows beyond 2.10
pending-review
De-universalizing Alexander by researching his collaborators and context would be preferable to solo-figure Christian teleology.10
pending-review
Developmental bioelectricity scales cell-level feedback into anatomical homeostasis.10
pending-review
ETIs are described by conditions necessary for deep learning / non-decomposable function learning10
pending-review
Evolutionary Pivot across Problem Spaces10
pending-review
Example of extreme unconventional agent combining mammalian neural culture, insect neurons, robotic swarm body, and social media-based environment10
pending-review
Felt states can be achieved by multiple biological substrates and different anatomical organizations, similar to other cognitive functions.10
pending-review
Formulating a prior intention constitutes a catastrophic bifurcation—a phase change in cognitive organization—analogous to Bénard cell emergence.10
pending-review
Functional relationships necessary for evolutionary individuality are the same as those required for organismic individuality and constitute cognitive architectures.10
pending-review
Future work should develop fully-fledged dynamic theories combining qualitative and quantitative information in the style of Game Semantics and Geometry of Interaction.Paper identifies major research objective: extending static reconciliations (Domain Theory + Shannon) to dynamic frameworks.10
pending-review
Goals and stressors are key invariants unifying morphogenesis, behavior, and physiological allostasis.10
pending-review
If care is trained and practiced skillfully, it becomes more effective at empowering and enriching intelligence.10
pending-review
If non-brain tissues (liver, kidney, organs) exhibit training, anticipation, and learning from prior experience, then cognitive science principles extend beyond neurobiology.10
pending-review
If stress exceeds a system's capacity to respond, the system becomes incapacitated and care response is disabled (analogous to resistance overload in Ohm's law).10
pending-review
If systems are designed with proper purpose-oriented abstractions expressed in appropriate language, then modular structure with guaranteed reliability becomes achievable.Core hypothesis underlying Oberon design; validated by the system's successful modularity and extensibility.10
pending-review
If the fifteen properties' internal coherence is clarified through visualization and analysis, then they can be successfully applied beyond architecture to other domains.10
pending-review
Inclusion of others' stress in homeostatic loops increases cognitive boundary and scales intelligence10
pending-review
Learning neural networks can enable 'chunking' and rescale problem-solving to higher organizational levels, a mechanism intrinsic to transitions in individuality.10
pending-review
Linda can express fine-grained wavefront computations cleanly; future implementations on next-generation machines can support them efficiently.10
pending-review
Lucid dreaming alters environmental affordances by opening action possibilities unavailable in waking life.10
pending-review
Memories persist through complete brain remodeling during metamorphosis by transferring and remapping onto newly-constructed neural tissue.Proposed mechanism explaining behavioral continuity in insects undergoing radical morphogenesis.10
pending-review
Memories, as patterns in the excitable medium of cognitive systems, could be seen as active agents in the sense-making process10
pending-review
Morphogenesis is a collective intelligence problem, not merely genetic execution10
pending-review
Multi-stable mechanical systems with energy barriers (ratchets) provide a physical model for how genetic states persist and discretely change.10
pending-review
Partial orders naturally represent partial information states in computation.Foundational hypothesis of Domain Theory: partial order structure (D, ⊑) captures information ordering without quantification.10
pending-review
Spaces with special quality evoke memories and possess aesthetic resonance through integration of materials, ornament, color, and spatial experience10
pending-review
Stress and stress-transfer are useful ways of understanding dynamics of any intelligent system, whether biological or technological.10
pending-review
Stress sharing works to increase cohesiveness of collectives by raising exploratory plasticity in neighboring cells, enabling long-distance cell influence10
pending-review
Stressed cells leak stress signals to neighbors, raising their plasticity and enabling them to create temporary passages (tunnels) for movement.10
pending-review
The number of spatial moves and refinements possible in diagrammatic systems is nearly infiniteProposed within the framework that while primary moves are limited, their inflections and attributes are boundless.10
pending-review
Three key empirical propositions: morphogenesis generates sustainability; handles all sustainability issues together; reorients toward wholeness10
pending-review
Unfolding as natural process arising from structure-preserving transformations that enhance latent structures10
pending-review

106 total hypotheses.