Organized Physical Interiority: A Philosophical Perspective on the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis

Abstract The Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis (CAH) points toward a more selective candidate for consciousness than appeals to complexity, computation, or integration in general. Physical Interiority: the active maintenance of a bounded, thermodynamically constrained, load-bearing interior through which distributed processes are held together as one regime rather than many disconnected ones. Consciousness, if generated at all, belongs not to information processing wherever it appears, but to a narrower class of physically organized interiors whose unity depends on selective routing structure and the work required to sustain it. The paper clarifies this candidate bridge-principle, distinguishes it from more permissive generator theories, and examines several exclusion cases. It also suggests that a stronger candidate for phenomenal perspective may require a still narrower condition: a temporally renewed regime of asymmetrically privileged co-presence. The aim is not to present CAH as a finished solution to consciousness, but to show that it now specifies a physical target clear enough to support serious philosophical evaluation and explicit rivalry with competing interpretations. Overview This perspective paper argues that the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis (CAH) should now be taken seriously as a candidate generator theory of consciousness. Rather than identifying consciousness with complexity, computation, or integration in general, the paper proposes a narrower candidate generator: the active maintenance of a bounded, thermodynamically constrained, load-bearing integrative interior. The paper briefly reconstructs the recent evolution of CAH from its earlier whole-network phase-transition framing into a more selective account centered on lower-tail routing structure, scaffold-specific control, and organized physical interiority. It situates CAH relative to Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNW), proposes a bridge-principle for how a specific class of physical organization might count as a site of phenomenal interiority, and examines several exclusion cases to clarify what the framework does and does not imply. The aim is not to establish CAH as settled truth, nor to eliminate filter-based or consciousness-first alternatives. The aim is to show that CAH is a sufficiently selective, mechanistically explicit, and empirically exposed framework to deserve direct philosophical and empirical attention as a live contender in the consciousness debate. Related Works Pender, M. A. (2026). Dynamic Curvature Adaptation: A Unified Geometric Theory of Cortical State and Pathological Collapse. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18615180 Pender, M. A. (2026). A Control-Law Extension of the Curvature Adaptation Hypothesis in Hierarchical Transport Networks. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19270109 Pender, M. A. (2026). Beyond Mean Curvature: Lower-Tail Routing Structure in Controlled Hierarchical Networks. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19324675