Two Layers of Human Intelligence: Bodily Intelligence and Conscious Intelligence

Observation has outpaced understanding in intelligence research. We propose a substrate-agnostic, constraints-first account—intelligence as resource-rational control under limits on time, computation, and communication—and a two-layer human ar- chitecture: Bodily Intelligence (BI) (complex, adaptive, learnable control without con- temporaneous conscious governance) and Conscious Intelligence (CI) (choices shaped by consciously accessed reasons and counterfactuals). CI is broader than conscious log- ical reasoning (which we regard as foundational for CI); it also includes metacognitive regulation, counterfactual evaluation, value/goal deliberation, and consciously accessed justificatory control. Empirically, we outline repeatable, cross-substrate methods: stan- dardized resource accounting (time/compute/communication), perturbation-rich tasks (dual manipulations and online premise-perturbation), performance–resource curves and CI↔BI switch-cost mapping, parity tests across humans/animals/AI with logged compute, and governance criteria distinguishing algorithmic from conscious explicit- ness. These yield reproducible resource–performance and dose–response signatures that support BI/CI as a common yardstick for cumulative, cross-substrate science.