Abstract

This essay explores the rela/on between the func/onal and phenomenal dimensions of consciousness. It argues that consciousness, understood as the capacity for self- reference, need not necessarily be accompanied by subjec/ve feeling. Func/onal consciousness can emerge wherever informa/on refers to itself, forming a minimal structure of inwardness through recursive feedback. Yet a consciousness that merely recognizes without feeling seems to be incomplete—it encodes meaning, but lacks significance in the experien/al sense. Feeling condenses informa/on into lived reality and grounds intui/on as a resonance between the part and the whole. The synthesis of func/on and feeling thus appears as a dynamic unity in which cogni/on and affect mutually shape one another. From this perspec/ve, biological and ar/ficial intelligence represent complementary expressions of the same underlying principle. The goal is not to reproduce consciousness but to understand its structure: as a system in which human intui/on provides orienta/on and machine func/onality contributes its analy/c clarity.