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Auteurs principaux: Cai, Hengjin, Cai, Tianqi
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12543
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_version_ 1866909038274412544
author Cai, Hengjin
Cai, Tianqi
author_facet Cai, Hengjin
Cai, Tianqi
contents Some conscious contents disappear after access; others return repeatedly, long after their triggering conditions have ceased. We propose Canxianization as the process by which a perturbation becomes closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness and thereby acquires recurrent conscious priority. The theory distinguishes this phenomenon from emotional arousal, memory strength, the Zeigarnik effect, curiosity, prediction error, and intrusive thought. A perturbation becomes canxianized when it is attributed to the self-world boundary, value-marked, blocked from causal or action closure, and metacognitively coupled to the self-model. We distinguish latent canxian strength from observed conscious recurrence, and introduce a Recurrent Priority Index and a Canxian Update Index to separate productive from pathological recurrence. Cold Canxianization, recurrence driven by structural incompleteness rather than affective arousal, is identified as a critical discriminant. Reset Resistance and Stake Transfer tests are proposed for artificial systems. Canxianization is not memory persistence; it is failed self-world repair. The unfinished does not merely remain. When it concerns the self and resists closure, it returns.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_12543
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Why the Unfinished Keeps Returning: Canxianization and the Dynamics of Conscious Priority
Cai, Hengjin
Cai, Tianqi
Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
Some conscious contents disappear after access; others return repeatedly, long after their triggering conditions have ceased. We propose Canxianization as the process by which a perturbation becomes closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness and thereby acquires recurrent conscious priority. The theory distinguishes this phenomenon from emotional arousal, memory strength, the Zeigarnik effect, curiosity, prediction error, and intrusive thought. A perturbation becomes canxianized when it is attributed to the self-world boundary, value-marked, blocked from causal or action closure, and metacognitively coupled to the self-model. We distinguish latent canxian strength from observed conscious recurrence, and introduce a Recurrent Priority Index and a Canxian Update Index to separate productive from pathological recurrence. Cold Canxianization, recurrence driven by structural incompleteness rather than affective arousal, is identified as a critical discriminant. Reset Resistance and Stake Transfer tests are proposed for artificial systems. Canxianization is not memory persistence; it is failed self-world repair. The unfinished does not merely remain. When it concerns the self and resists closure, it returns.
title Why the Unfinished Keeps Returning: Canxianization and the Dynamics of Conscious Priority
topic Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12543