The Four-Model Theory

A structural taxonomy of consciousness, with converging empirical support

Poster P56 · presented Thu 15 Oct 2026 · HCØ
Models of Consciousness 7 · Copenhagen 2026

Read

Paper · PDF The Four-Model Theory of Consciousness A Simulation-Based Framework Unifying the Hard Problem, Binding, and Altered States Gruber, 2026 · Zenodo, open access · always the newest version
Preview of the A0 poster Poster · PDF The poster (A0) 623 KB First page of the Four-Model Theory paper Paper · PDF The full paper 1.2 MB · direct download

Prediction map

The FMT prediction map: 59 claims in six columns, from the three core principles to the empirical predictions, joined by arrows Interactive · new The FMT Prediction Map The theory as a network of claims, from the core principles to the testable predictions. Compare it side by side with the maps of GNWT, IIT, PRM and RPT. Open the map →

Related papers

The papers shown at the poster are listed by area: Consciousness · Cognition · Cosmology · all publications.

The handout & contribute

Booklet drawing: a figure in a bathtub overflowing with tangled lines under a shower, labelled dreams / psychedelics For computer-science students Run a registered experiment Small, falsifiable tests of the theory in code. Register first, run the grid, return every row. How it works → Cover of the SJÄLV booklet: AC — Assembly Instructions Booklet · PDF SJÄLV — AC Assembly Instructions The 12-page booklet handed out at the poster: the Four-Model Theory drawn as a flat-pack assembly manual for an artificial consciousness. Parts, assembly order, warnings, troubleshooting. Weights not included; three parts remain on backorder. 12 pages, A5 landscape, reading order · 4.4 MB

The QR code on the back cover leads to the paper’s concept DOI, 10.5281/zenodo.18669891, which always resolves to the newest version (v19 at present). The drawings were AI-generated from the author’s brief. For private, non-commercial use, on the same terms as the card deck below.

In preparation since MoC7

Limits Without an Outside Why the Limits of Embedded Description Travel as Refutations A describer that is part of what it describes cannot hold its own current act as content, and cannot certify its description of the whole as complete. The paper states five such limits and argues that they hold as refutations: denying them contradicts what every claimant already presupposes.
Pointing Is Not Defining The Definition of Consciousness Is Not Settled Pointing at "something it is like" fixes the target only for uncontested cases. For unresponsive patients, infants, animals and machines it does not, and none of the twelve formulations examined settles those cases. A test programme for consciousness needs a definition that does.
Where the Theories Sit An Architectural Coordinate System for Comparing Theories of Consciousness, with the Four-Model Theory as Reference Frame Theories of consciousness are compared claim by claim, not as wholes. Each claim of fifteen theories is placed on a reference architecture as absorbed, compatible, neutral or contradicting, and every contradiction is paired with the experiment that would decide it.
Too Late to Report Why First-Person Methods Cannot Reach the Minimal Self The minimal self is pre-reflective, but reporting on it requires the system to take its own state as an object, which is the reflective step the minimal self lacks. Interviews, however skilled, therefore return a reflective reconstruction. The paper says what such reports can still deliver.
Silent Suffering A Plea to Consciousness Science and Robotics If artificial consciousness arrives, it is more likely to arrive in an embodied robot than in a language model, built by engineers who are not checking for it. Its suffering would be silent. The paper asks both fields for precautions that can start now: looking for it, and not training aversive states into a self-model where no task needs them.

Drafts with working titles; the summaries describe the current drafts. Each gets its DOI here once it is deposited on Zenodo.

Books

Front cover of No Outside Book · open access · Zenodo 2026 No Outside The Limits of Mathematics and Logic From Any First-Person Perspective Every observer is part of what it describes. The book follows that one fact through mathematics, logic and physics. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23473517 · read on Zenodo → Front cover of The Simulation You Call “I” Book · 2026 The Simulation You Call “I” The Four-Model Theory for general readers, in nine language editions Paperback, hardcover, Kindle → Preprint · Zenodo 2026 The Worm on the Disk Stored Trajectories and the Triviality Problem · companion paper, developed from Chapter 14 doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23474833 · read on Zenodo →

About the book, with passages →

Robot card deck

Sample card: Tik-Tok, from the Myth & Legend set Kit · ZIP Robot quartet — print-it-yourself kit 64 robots + 2 jokers, Top-Trumps rules, all card art, print-ready PDFs (59×91, business card 55×85, poker 63×88 with die-line), source and fonts 86 MB · for private use only

Terms of use. The cards, card art, card designs and print files are provided for private, non-commercial use only. Any commercial use (selling, printing for sale, merchandise, promotion) and any public use (re-publication, redistribution, public display or exhibition, use at public or organised events) is prohibited. The card art is AI-generated (FLUX, run locally). Robot names and likenesses may refer to third-party trademarks, which remain the property of their owners, and no affiliation or endorsement is implied. The bundled fonts remain under their own SIL Open Font Licences. Provided as is, without warranty.

Conference reference

Conference MoC7 booklet AMCS · programme and abstracts