Common-Currency Integration

Explanation

Common-Currency Integration is the load-bearing architectural fact of the AIM Framework. The brain must produce a single "do this next" decision, and to do so it integrates A, I, and M valuations into a single Scalar at the vmPFC and ventral striatum (the Decision Hub). The integration is information-destroying: three source-specific valuations, Appetitive, Intrinsic and Mimetic, become one integrated value, and the source-tags cannot be recovered from the output by any downstream process, including conscious introspection. This architectural irreversibility is the formal reason that source-tag recovery is not possible by introspection, and it is the reason that the Knowledge Patch operates by inferential elimination (Two-Question Diagnostic) rather than by direct source-recovery. The integration is Axiom 2; Source Opacity is the information-theoretic consequence that follows directly from it by the Data Processing Inequality. Architectural consequence specification. Common-Currency Integration is the formal mechanism through which Source Opacity is generated. The integration step is the site of information loss; all downstream AIM dynamics (Confabulation, Object Parasitism, Camouflage Architecture, Bayesian Lock-In, Scapegoat Mechanism) are entailed by the information loss at this step. Intervention at the Decision Hub level is architecturally impossible; intervention must operate on the Hypothesis Space (Knowledge Patch) or on the input channels (AIM weight adjustment) rather than on the integration step itself. Scalar-affect distinction. The Common-Currency Scalar is the felt urge to act, the action-selection decision variable. The felt state produced alongside it is Phenomenal Affect (see that entry), a distinct construct emitted by the same integration event. The Source Opacity Theorem applies to both: source tags are destroyed at the integration that produces each, so neither the Scalar nor the Phenomenal Affect carries recoverable information about its A, I, or M composition. The two differ in duration: the Scalar resolves rapidly at action-selection, whereas Phenomenal Affect persists beyond the ignition event, which is why richer inferential understanding is available for affect than for motivation.

Epistemic status

Canonical Axiom (Axiom 2); Framework-Specific Foundational Construct; Established Neuroscience (vmPFC and ventral striatum integration confirmed by Levy and Glimcher 2012, Bartra et al. 2013, Chib et al. 2009).

Derivation

Chapter 4, Section 4.3.2; Chapter 4, Section 4.4.1; Chapter 9, Section 9.1.3; Chapter 9, Section 9.1.5; Chapter 9, Section 9.2.1; Appendix A, Section A.2; Chapter 14, Appendix 14A.8.

Also in the entry

Source: Axiom 2 (Common-Currency Integration); Chapter 4 (component-function localisation); Chapter 9 (Neural Integration and Source Opacity, canonical treatment).

Related terms

• Decision Hub
• AIM Integration Equation
• Axiom 2 - Common-Currency Integration
• Source Opacity (Axiom 3)
• Confabulation (Axiom 4)
• Object Parasitism
• Camouflage Architecture
• AIM Weights (wA
• wI
• w_M)
• Disaggregation Primitive
• Data Processing Inequality
• Phenomenal Affect
• Confabulation Race