AIM Framework glossary
Preconscious Transmission
Canonical definition
Preconscious transmission is the propagation of mimetic signals through mirror neuron systems and social-reward circuits faster than conscious report (in the human substrate, on best-current estimate, 60-340 milliseconds), prior to conscious awareness, attentional gating, or deliberate reasoning, such that mimetically-copied valuations reach the Decision Hub with no accompanying phenomenology the Individual could consciously catch; that their source cannot be recovered afterwards is Source Opacity, which holds whatever the latency. [Axiom 7: Preconscious Transmission]
Explanation
Preconscious transmission explains why Mimetic Desire feels self-originating rather than socially copied. Mirror neurons activate when observing others' goal-directed actions at speeds within the Transmission Window that precede conscious perception (typically 300+ ms). By the time an Individual becomes consciously aware of wanting something, the mimetic input has already been integrated into the Decision Hub, and the conscious narrative system generates post-hoc confabulation to explain the desire as if it arose autonomously. This timing architecture (mimetic input before conscious awareness) leaves no catchable phenomenology at the moment of action, a barrier separate from Source Opacity, and helps explain why verbal introspection about motives is weak evidence compared to behavioural signatures.
Epistemic status
Established Neuroscience.
Derivation
Chapter 4, Section 4.3.7; Chapter 8, Section 8.2.7; Chapter 10, Section 10.10.3.