What is Narrative Complexity?

Narrative Complexity is a hypothesis—a theoretical model of consciousness. The theory is built around a simple premise: that the generation & maintenance of multiple, ongoing, interconnected narratives is the primary method by which the human brain creates the flow of consciousness. This narratively-driven engine is, in essence, our mind's "operating system"—the evolutionarily-developed method by which our brain directs our choices & behavior, evaluates & analyzes the world around us, defines our place in that world, and determines how we will file, manage & respond to the seemingly overwhelming piles of data that we process every second of our existence.

Narrative Complexity explains consciousness by breaking it up into several different mechanisms that work in concert to keep our operating system up-and-running. The primary consciousness-generating mechanisms that the theory identifies & seeks to explain are:

• Syntactic Memory: Data Storage, Association, Comparison & Recall
• Rules, Vocabulary & Beliefs: Narrative Building & Analysis
• Emotional Equations: Imprinting & Signaling
• Urges & Internal Dialogue: Decision-Making

Narrative Complexity also defines & explores two of the central effects that emerge from the interaction of those mechanisms: the Internal Dialogue Loop (the essence of our fluid conscious experience) and the Free Will Paradox (the essence of our sense of indepedence).

In addition, the theory includes a description of our levels of awareness: the Diffuse Box of Consciousness, which explores how these multiple narrative threads weave their way from the unaware realm of our subconscious to the state of awareness that we perceive as being.

When viewed as a whole, Narrative Complexity will explain how the external data that we have previously stored & are presently consuming via study & experience combines with an ongoing loop of internal data provided through our emotions, internal dialogue, physical urges, actions, speech, behavior & physical state to generate the all-encompassing, narratively-based experience of consciousness.

It's a microcosmic Theory of Everything—because, for us humans, there is no anything without consciousness.


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