Constraint Geometry and the Self-Consistency Condition - A Formal Architecture for Identity-Grounded Consciousness

Most accounts of consciousness begin by assuming the existence of a persisting subject and proceed to characterize what that subject experiences. This ordering creates a structural problem: the conditions under which a subject exists in the first place remain unspecified. We present a formal architecture in which identity is prior, consciousness is derived, and the relationship between them is governed by a self-consistency condition that existing frameworks do not possess. The architecture proceeds from seed-field to generative kernel, from kernel-equivalence quotient to constraint manifold, from maintenance cost functional to viable region, and from viable region to regime stratification under substrate accessibility restriction. The key result is that the constraint manifold is not a static geometric object: it exists only for as long as recursive dynamics maintain the kernel whose equivalence class defines it. Consciousness is the high-coherence attractor state of those same dynamics, not an additional phenomenon requiring separate explanation. The formalism generates a precise, empirically testable prediction about anesthesia: consciousness loss need not involve a trajectory exiting the viable region. It can consist in the accessibility boundary sweeping inward across an occupied point while identity persists. This dissociation between identity and consciousness, and the geometric conditions under which it occurs, constitutes the primary empirical claim of the paper. Version 2 extends the original architecture to address the internal geometry of the conscious regime — the question of why particular configurations feel the way they do. Two candidate degrees of freedom are introduced: self-referential gain (σ) and temporal coherence (τ). These are motivated by residual analysis against the consciousness taxonomy — phenomena that ρ, γ, and μ do not account for. Their formal status in R(t) remains an open question: they may enter as independent axes, as nonlinear interaction terms, or as parameterizations of existing surfaces. The interaction structure of all five candidate components is shown to generate the empirical taxonomy of conscious states, including pathological varieties, conditional on their formal status being resolved. Differential anesthetic susceptibility across pre-induction conscious states is derived as a further empirical prediction.