Toward an Integrated Science of Consciousness: Unifying Attention, Information, and Entropy

This white paper proposes a unifying theoretical and experimental framework for the science of consciousness, integrating three major perspectives: the Attention Schema Theory (AST), Integrated Information Theory (IIT), and the Free Energy Principle (FEP). Building on source-based findings and contemporary literature, we argue that attention schema coherence serves as a meta-regulator of precision in predictive coding, that a new entropy formalism is required to realize IIT in real-world systems, and that conscious states can be modeled as trajectories in an entropic attractor landscape. These convergences not only bridge gaps across previously siloed theories, but offer new clinical pathways for schizophrenia and novel architectures for conscious artificial systems.