Compressed Irreversibility and the Generative Conditions of Qualia

This paper proposes the Compressed Irreversibility Model (CIM) as a generative condition theory of qualia. Rather than describing the phenomenological content of qualia, CIM aims to identify the structural conditions under which qualia necessarily emerge. Qualia are defined as the minimal structure remaining after repeated compression of memory weighted by irreversible world engagement. The conscious subject is understood not as a substance but as a self-maintaining boundary condition — a system that continuously updates its predictive model through bodily error signals and maintains homeostasis under existential threat. CIM distinguishes between structure-updating experiences, in which novel inputs compel irreversible neural reorganization and qualia are generated as compression residue, and circuit-reactivating experiences, in which existing circuits reference previously compressed structure and produce weaker qualia. The inability of current artificial systems to generate qualia is attributed not to computational insufficiency but to structural absence. The paper specifies falsifiability conditions and proposes experimental designs isolating irreversibility as an independent variable, connecting the theory to behavioral and neuroscientific methodology.