When Matter Thinks: The Physics of Experience in Electrodynamic Intelligence Systems

This paper introduces the Electrodynamic Intelligence (EDI) framework, a physically groundedmodel that unifies intelligence and consciousness through the dynamic interplay of energy,memory, and signal propagation within material systems. In this framework, intelligence isunderstood as an emergent property arising from propagation-driven learning embedded inthe system’s electrodynamic substrate. We introduce an Electrodynamic Intelligence Quo-tient (EDIQ) to quantify a system’s learning capacity based on key physical parameters:: effi-ciency (η), total memory-energy (Mtot), signal velocity (ϕ), and energy per cognitive operation(Emem). Consciousness is hypothesized to emerge when reentrant encoding reaches a criticalthreshold capacity (Ccrit), inducing recursive closure, a phase transition that grants the systemaccess to its own internal informational states. This condition is proposed as a physical and in-formational foundation for the emergence of phenomenal experience. The EDI framework alignswith observed neurophysiological phenomena, including critical slowing, EEG coherence, andhysteresis during transitions between conscious states. It offers testable predictions throughboth neuroimaging and neuromorphic hardware, and provides a pathway for unifying memory,intelligence, and subjectivity under a single physical formalism. Building and testing physicalEDI devices involves tuning quantum memristor properties to allow the physical realization oflearning and cognition through energy-efficient electrodynamic processes. While EDI does noteliminate the explanatory gap, the so-called hard problem of consciousness, it reframes it asthe scientific challenge of identifying lawful correspondences between reentrant electrodynamicstates and subjective experience. In doing so, it offers a novel perspective on how intelligentsystems might not only learn, but also feel from the inside