TEVSER: a theory of evolving self-representations
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience July 9, 2026 Igor Pivovarov
A new framework, TEVSER (Theory of Evolving Self-Representations), proposes that living systems maintain homeostasis through a hierarchy of self-representations that serve as control structures guiding behavior. Within this hierarchy, distinct functional levels correspond to qualitatively different forms of cognition, including the emergence of a phenomenological internal world, spatial subjectivity, temporal presence, behavioral intelligence, self-consciousness, and abstract symbolic intellect. Consciousness is treated as a structured and graded property arising from the organization of self-representing systems, offering a constructive approach to the hard problem of consciousness. The framework integrates predictive coding, active inference, higher-order theories, and integrated information theory within a unified architecture and generates testable hypotheses linking levels of self-representation to neural organization, behavior, and evolutionary complexity.