Organisms and consciousness
How living systems determine what matters when action cannot wait for complete information.
Explore consciousness research →Arik Shimansky
I work on questions about intelligence, change and agency.
My work ranges from consciousness and artificial cognition to institutions, markets and emerging technologies.
The recurring interest is how systems recognise what matters, respond to change and create possibilities when the future is not yet obvious.
One problem, several domains
How do systems decide what matters and what to do next?
Artificial cognition
How artificial systems might maintain memory, context, goals, attention and continuity rather than reconstructing themselves with every interaction.
Explore artificial systems →Human systems and change
How people, organisations, markets and institutions respond when events or technologies change faster than their existing models.
Visit Synaptic Quanta →Current work
Research, systems and practice
Measuring the Unmeasurable
Accepted conference talk · working paperA theory of consciousness based on temporal constraint: what happens when an organism must evaluate the significance of a situation before the underlying information can be fully resolved.
↗Digital Umwelt
In developmentA persistent layer between a person and interchangeable AI models or applications, designed to preserve context, goals and continuity over time.
↗Personal Cognitive Architecture
Active system · research and developmentAn experimental personal AI architecture combining memory, provenance, goals, attention, metacognition and persistent internal state.
↗Nested Selfhood
Exploratory theoryAn exploratory model of how increasingly integrated forms of self may emerge from nested biological and regulatory boundaries.
↗Synaptic Quanta
Active practiceSynaptic Quanta is a commercial practice for consequential situations that cross conventional boundaries, turning insight into strategy, transactions, ventures or systems.
↗An evolving research programme
The question has changed as the work has developed.
PQM and the hard problem
An early attempt to connect physical mechanisms, predictive processing, affect and evolutionary delay. Presented at The Science of Consciousness, Taormina.
Temporal constraint and valence
A testable account of why organisms may need to evaluate survival significance before sensory information is fully resolved.
Official conference abstract →Background
A route through science, finance, technology and climate.
My background spans mathematics and physics, institutional finance, investment, technology ventures, climate systems and AI. The domains changed, but the work repeatedly involved the same kind of problem: understanding unfamiliar systems, connecting incomplete information and deciding what matters before the situation becomes obvious.
Mathematics & physicsQuantum chemistryInstitutional financeTechnology & climateArtificial cognitive systemsConsciousness & selfhood
Read the full history →