**[[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] (Consciousness):** To exist ([[161_P0_Origin-Stage|P0]]) is to be distinguishable. Distinction requires a **Distinguisher** (Observer). Therefore, the onset of Existence is simultaneous with the onset of Consciousness/Observation.
[[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] does not claim that biological brains are co-original with the universe. It claims that distinction-making (the formal structure of consciousness) is co-original with existence. The universe existed as a quantum wavefunction—pure potentiality without determinate classical states—until decoherence and observation. "Observation" need not be human; it is information extraction that collapses superposition. The early universe was observed by itself through self-interaction (decoherence is environment observing system). Mind is not brain; mind is the structure of distinction.
[[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] is not anthropocentric. It does not claim human consciousness creates reality. It claims that consciousness (distinction-making capacity) is a structural feature of existence itself. The Logos ([[011_D2.2_Chi-Field-Properties|chi-field]]) is the primordial observer. God as observer precedes human observers. [[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] grounds consciousness in the divine, not in human brains. We participate in observation; we do not monopolize it.
Eliminativism is self-refuting. To eliminate consciousness, one must be conscious of the elimination. The claim "consciousness does not exist" is itself a conscious claim. Furthermore, eliminativism cannot explain why there is something it is like to have neural processes. The explanatory gap remains even if we have complete neural descriptions.
Decoherence does not eliminate the observer—it distributes observation. The environment "observing" a quantum system is still a form of information transfer and distinction-making. Decoherence explains the suppression of interference terms, not the selection of a definite outcome (the measurement problem remains). Moreover, what is the "environment"? Other quantum systems. The regress terminates in a cosmic observer or in genuine indeterminacy (which still requires eventual observation to become determinate).
[[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] does not require that rocks have rich subjective experience. It requires that the capacity for distinction is fundamental. Integrated Information Theory quantifies this: systems have \Phi > 0 to the extent they make distinctions that make a difference. Rocks have extremely low \Phi. The primordial observer (Logos/God) has maximal \Phi. Human consciousness is intermediate. The scale varies; the structure is universal.
The measurement problem is the physical instantiation of [[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]]: why does observation cause wavefunction collapse?
Pre-Measurement State:
System is in superposition of eigenstates |a_i\rangle with amplitudes c_i.
Post-Measurement State:
The transition from superposition to definite outcome requires something—the observer, the measurement apparatus, the environment. [[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] asserts this "something" is consciousness in its structural form.
Observer as Functor:
Let \mathbf{QM} be category of quantum systems, \mathbf{Class} be category of classical outcomes.
Observation is a functor:
Mapping quantum states to classical measurement results.
Properties:
\mathcal{O} depends on measurement context