Paul W. Barnes — Consciousness Researcher, Athabasca University

Essays

Shorter writings on consciousness, selfhood, emotion, and foundations of physics. Each piece develops a specific argument within or adjacent to the broader UAFT research program. Long-form papers are available on the Research Programme page. Essays are organised by domain, mirroring the five-volume research structure.

Foundations

Physics, cosmology, ontology.

Symmetry Is What Asymmetry Looks Like

May 10, 2026
UAFT's structural inversion of symmetry and asymmetry. Symmetry as the dynamic consistency that asymmetry maintains, not the static ontological state from which asymmetry breaks. Why apparent symmetry is always a feature of active differentiation.

Mind

Consciousness, philosophy of mind, psychology.

Consciousness Research Without Consciousness

May 11, 2026
A new paper from Google DeepMind on AI consciousness exemplifies two fallacies that should be named before they harden into the discipline's defaults. The diagnostic, the framework problem, and what is at stake when consciousness research stops asking about consciousness.

The Hard Conflation and Its Opposite: Two Fallacies in Consciousness Debates

May 9, 2026
Two fallacies in contemporary consciousness debates named and distinguished: Hard Conflation (bundling functional and phenomenal consciousness under one term) and Concept Hollowing (keeping the word while removing what made it a concept). The diagnostic that lets the moves be recognized as moves.