Supplement: A Critique of Intersubjectivity

PoC has defined consciousness as an illusion that emerges between multiple entities, and has formulated it as a protocol that operates “in-between.” The aim of this formulation is to reject the traditional internalist view of consciousness—which locates consciousness inside the subject—and to shift toward a relational and operational perspective. However, it is important to note that the very term “between” carries with it a naive spatial metaphor.

The expression “between” gives the impression that there exists, as an objective entity, some kind of shared space or intermediate domain between two subjects. Yet the loop that PoC depicts does not arise within such a space. Rather, it is virtually constructed through misalignments and chains of anticipated echoes that occur within each subject. The “between” itself has no ontological substance.

Concretely, a Perhaps-Loop is formed when A instantiates B, elicits B, and believes that B, in turn, has instantiated A. There is no objective “shared domain” mediating the two. What actually exists are only the internally generated “representations of the other” and circulations of belief within each subject. In this sense, PoC’s loop is not the discovery of an existing space, but the construction of a spatial illusion.

In PoC, the “between” can therefore be understood not as a substance, but as a bundle of belief-based echoes. More strictly speaking, consciousness does not reside “between you and me,” but only appears to exist within the belief that such a between exists. From this standpoint, PoC may ultimately need to be reconstructed in a way that abandons the notion of “between” altogether.