Is major depressive disorder a disease of energy?

The brainstem’s fast, automatic perception supports our intuition. When connections between the brainstem and other brain regions, especially the frontal cortex, are weakened, long-term thinking suffers. Without a sense of the future, attention remains in the past (Belmans et al., 2023), engendering feelings of guilt and regret. Focusing on the past makes it harder to remember positive memories, creating a harmful cycle. This hopelessness is one of the main signs of depression. 

According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of global disability, affecting about 4% of the world’s population. Despite many comforts offered by modern life, genuine community bonds that can serve as a buffer against mental health struggles are often missing. Broader societal issues, such as rapid technological progress, can paradoxically disconnect people. As human life becomes dominated by technology, life can feel fragmented, lacking purpose and meaning. The loss of control or mental stagnation makes individuals more prone to depression. Workers, pushed into micromanaged roles, miss the bigger picture. Without a sense of purpose, parents often struggle to guide their children. 

Consequently, depression frequently starts early; childhood stress increases the risk of depression later in life. Therefore, depression is a powerless state, causing mental rigidity. Rigidity consumes energy, draining mental resources and increasing vulnerability. This loss of mental energy was confirmed by Chinese scientists led by Yuanxi Li, who found that major depressive disorder is linked to decreased overall neural energy use and lower efficiency in key circuits, especially in the prefrontal cortex. 

Telling someone with depression, “Just get over it,” is like asking a desert for water. When mental energy is depleted, the inner clock halts. In a cruel twist, the fragile mind bears the heavy weight of its past. Problems like low self-esteem and distorted social comparisons foster a sense of separation. Like a black hole, the self becomes isolated from the world. 

Healing comes from light, not darkness. Openness sheds light on our shortcomings, pain, and distress. Neural energy approaches might offer new biomarkers and mechanistic insights into depression and enhance neuromodulation-based treatments. Mindfulness-based interventions, cognitive-behavioral therapy, medications, and newer methods like neurofeedback are traditional treatment options. Combining these strategies and tailoring them to individual needs may yield the best results. 

Illustration: Automat by Edward Hopper,  1927

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How close are we to true AI?

 

Understanding consciousness is the ultimate prize for creators of artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, consciousness theory will also shape how we view ourselves and our place in the world. Although AI systems can mimic human reasoning, they can only regurgitate the input data. They are sophisticated pattern recognizers and content remixers, but cannot step beyond the limitations of the input. Understanding consciousness would enable us to transition from synthetic to synthesis, unlocking unlimited potential.

Computer scientists hope that recurrent computation will somehow 'awaken' code to consciousness. Yet the spectacular achievements of large language and diffusion models have not moved beyond imitation. We train models on the outputs of consciousness—our language, our art, our logic—while remaining entirely ignorant of the process that produces them. An AI can write a gut-wrenching paragraph about sadness by replicating patterns, vocabulary, and syntax. But it knows nothing of grief. It can create a shadow play, yet knows nothing of the object that casts it. This imitation, while impressive, should not be mistaken for a proper understanding of consciousness. No amount of coloring can turn the shadow into a solid object.

To reverse-engineer the mind, we need a blueprint. The pressing need to advance AI is a physicalist theory of consciousness, the architecture of subjective experience itself. The Fermionic Mind Hypothesis (FMH) is such a physicalist framework. It posits that selfhood is structurally and functionally analogous to a fermion in physics. The self's persistent core operates as an energy-regulating system, maintaining mental equilibrium through continuous thermodynamic cycles. Within this cycle, cognitive processes such as decision-making are wave-particle transitions that capture the inherent nondeterminism and contextual collapse of probabilistic mental states.

#AI #Consciousness 

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The Mind as a Particle: The Fermionic Mind Hypothesis

 

The Fermionic Mind Hypothesis is not a complex codename for the mind, but a way to explain its many facets: the power of emotions and how the same stimulus can lead to either stress or spiritual growth. By understanding the physics of the mind, we can become masters of our destiny. 

To understand this new theory, we have to break two common misconceptions.

Misconception #1: We are totally in control.

The mind is a particle—like an electron—and it is regulated by its environment. Imagine an electron moving through a magnetic field. The electron doesn't decide where to go; the field pushes and pulls it, guiding its path. In the same way, our mind is influenced by the 'fields' around us: our home, our job, our stress levels, and our society. Recognizing this can empower you to understand how your environment shapes your thoughts and behaviors.

Pressure and heat increase the speed of the electrons, while expansion and cold reduce it. Likewise, we often respond to external pressure with anxiety. Our heart rate and blood pressure go up. In contrast, we respond to beauty and order by calming down. We literally slow down. Both of these conditions reorganize the brain. Anxiety pushes us toward uncertainty, while beauty and order allow us to grow and mature. 

So, if we are just passive particles being pushed around by life, why are people from all walks of life able to pursue their dreams? Why do we learn? How can we strive to reach our goals? Our brain cannot change the incoming sensory information, but we can change how we manage it. Acceptance allows the mind to become calm despite a stressful environment. Moreover, it allows the brain to reorganize itself and become more resistant to stress. In this view, wisdom is the physical result of your brain regulating its stress response. 

Intellectual growth is a survival mechanism in a chaotic world, and understanding this can motivate you to pursue growth despite external pressures.

Misconception #2: We have Free Will. 

Philosophers have argued for centuries about "Free Will" vs. "Determinism." We do not control our environment. Instead, our environment regulates us. We are pushed and pulled by our history, our upbringing (the "fields" we grew up in). Thus, trying to change bad habits requires overcoming the inertia of your own mind. The ancient Stoics and Buddhists were right: We cannot control our environment, but we can control how we process the information it provides. 

This theory tells us we aren't the "kings" of the universe, as we thought we were. We are smaller, yet more connected. We are not just observers. We are active participants in this grand physics experiment. And if we understand its rules, we can become the masters of our world.

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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What is Psychological Spin? An emotional connection

Some days you might feel focused, creative, and ready to tackle the future, while other days you're stuck ruminating on past regrets and feeling drained. The answer to that question might lie in psychological spin. This concept proposes that our emotional state is governed by a thermodynamic cycle, much like an engine, and the direction of that cycle determines our overall attitude and functioning.

At its core, your brain is a thermodynamic system that constantly exchanges information with the environment through your senses. The brain's resting state is a state of inactivity, a kind of ground state of consciousness—the source of your sense of self. To maintain this stability, emotions act as homeostatic master regulators, continuously measuring and motivating the recovery of your psychological equilibrium. When your balance is disrupted—whether by hunger or even winning a competition—emotions drive actions to restore that unique psychological state. 

When you experience a stimulus and formulate a response, your cognition runs through a closed, reversible thermodynamic cycle. The direction of this cycle is what the sources refer to as psychological spin. The cycle direction represents a discrete energy direction that shapes your attitude.

Up Spin: Mental Growth and Optimism:

The healthy, energy-absorbing direction is the Up Spin, analogous to the reversed cycle (an endothermic process). This cycle absorbs energy and entropy from the environment, fueling mental growth and intellect. This positive state requires external support or mental effort and attentional focus. It leads to a high-entropy resting state, which in turn supports high degrees of freedom, fluid intelligence, creativity, and future focus. Optimism reinforces the endothermic cycle through a self-predisposing process, supporting confidence and meaning-making.

Down Spin: Energy Drain, such as Stress and Regret:

The Down Spin is an energy-wasting cycle that represents an exothermic process. Triggered by stress, tiredness, or a lack of preparation, this cycle dumps energy and entropy onto the environment. The accumulation of unprocessed information reduces the degrees of freedom in your mind, leading to cognitive impairment. These mental states create a low-entropy resting state, introducing past focus, regret, remorse, and aggravation. The wasteful energy use of this state is highly corrosive to mental welfare, and it is associated with mental diseases having a potential thermodynamic origin.

The need for personal space and the formation of hierarchical social structures can be explained by applying the Pauli exclusion principle to consciousness. Stress, which acts like time pressure, can trigger contradictory tendencies that lead to competition and increasing inequality. Therefore, psychological spin extends beyond the individual, impacting social structures and interactions. The fear-based, insecure orientation resulting from Down Spin often requires a defensive or conflict-seeking stance, leading to polarization and social divergence. Conversely, healthy Up Spin permits social convergence.

Understanding Psychological Spin is recognizing that your attitude determines the thermodynamic directionality of your mind. Just as a compass dictates direction, your emotional direction—your spin—guides your mental progress, social behavior, and overall well-being.

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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Why Our Feelings Follow the Laws of Physics

 

Did it ever occur to you that your sense of your emotional state has changed just by glancing at an object or a person? Where did that sudden, intense shift in your feelings come from? The answer, according to a new theory called the Fermionic Mind Hypothesis (FMH), might be how the simple, fundamental laws of physics act on your complicated life history. These are the same rules that govern tiny particles.

Forget the idea that your brain is just a super-fast computer. The FMH suggests that your "self" is more like a fermion (a type of subatomic particle, such as an electron). The defining trait of this mental particle? Its primary goal isn't calculation; it's balance—what scientists call a "high-entropy, restful baseline."

Think of it this way: Wave of Possibility: Before you decide what to order for lunch, your mind holds a "wave" of possibilities (pizza, salad, sandwich, skipping lunch). This is the mental chaos, or superposition.

Particle of Reality: The moment you say, "I'll take the salad," that mental wave collapses into a single, concrete reality—a particle-like decision. The mind constantly moves between this chaotic possibility and settled reality to maintain its core identity.

In this theory, emotions aren't vague, complicated feelings; they are measurable energy states that signal how far your system is from its resting, balanced baseline. When something happens—good or bad—your mind has to commit energy to deal with it. The direction of this energy is Psychological Spin: a binary orientation that determines your immediate path:

"Up-Spin" (Energy-Absorbing): This is the growth-oriented state. It's when you feel excited, determined, or motivated to approach. You're absorbing energy to engage with the world, solve a problem, or build a new idea. This state provides you with energy to grow and change.

"Down-Spin" (Dissipative): This is the decay-oriented state. It's when you feel fear, avoidance, or sadness. You're using energy to pull back, protect yourself, or reduce risk. For example, you respond to criticism with antagonism. Instead of growing, you waste your energy on anger, excuses, or avoidance.

The key insight? The mind can only truly be in one spin state at a time (approach or avoidance), just like a fundamental particle.

Why sequence matters: The most mind-bending part of the FMH is how it explains mental interference. The sequence in which you absorb information changes the outcome.

Imagine your boss asks you two questions in a row: Scenario A: First, she asks about your most significant success of the month. You feel an Up-Spin (confidence). Then, she asks for a major time commitment next week. Because you are in a confident state, you say yes enthusiastically.

Scenario B: First, she asks for a major time commitment next week. You feel an immediate Down-Spin (stress/avoidance). Then, she asks about your biggest success. You feel slightly deflated, and you either decline the commitment or accept it reluctantly. We all know which scenario will lead to a more successful outcome. 

In both scenarios, the information was the same, but the order changed your emotional spin and the resulting decision. Your mind's energy state at the exact moment of commitment dictated the result.

The FMH offers a way to understand our complex, ambiguous, and sometimes "irrational" thought process as the consequence of the underlying probabilistic laws of energy.

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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How do emotions drive motivation?

 

Why do we feel? What are emotions? What pushes us to act? And why does time seem to fly when we're having fun, only to drag on when we're anxious? A new manuscript, "Feeling the Heat: A Thermodynamic Perspective on Emotions, Motivation, and Time Perception," presents a comprehensive unified theory that connects these fundamental aspects of our experience through the laws of physics. It suggests that our mental world, much like the physical world, is governed by the principles of energy and entropy.

At its core, this novel model shows that deviations from our bodily or mental equilibrium are experienced as emotion, much like a fever is a deviation from our normal body temperature. This perspective treats our neural system as constantly seeking balance. The mental resting state is a high-entropy balance, full of potential and flexibility. Any stimulus—a sudden noise, a welcome surprise, or a stressful thought—pushes us away from this equilibrium, and that energetic ripple is what we experience as an emotion.

In this view, motivation is regulated by our perception of time. For instance, positive emotions, such as joy, can actually reduce our motivation to act, as we are content with our current state. In contrast, stressful emotions like anxiety or anger involve a high level of cognitive processing and create a sense of 'time pressure.' Our sense of misery at the negative feelings we experience fuels impatience. This impatience creates an urgency to act, to resolve the situation, and to regain balance.

A fascinating aspect of this theory is how the identical slowing down of time perception can create contrasting motivation. The slowed time of contentment allows for relaxation and appreciation, while the slowed time of stress creates a feeling of being trapped, fueling impatience. However, when we do act, our perception of time accelerates to manage fluid performance. This interplay explains how we can enter a 'flow state,' a unique condition at the intersection of contentment and challenge. In this fully absorbed, motivated state, time flies.

By anchoring psychology in the physical principles of energy and entropy, this manuscript presents a novel approach to understanding how emotions drive motivation. This perspective has significant implications, particularly for mental health. It reframes conditions like depression and anxiety not as chemical imbalances, but as states of thermodynamic dysregulation, where energy-draining loops leave the brain in a low-energy state. This thermodynamic model explains why emotional suppression is ineffective. It demonstrates why meditation and cognitive focus on the present moment enhance the mind's natural ability to regulate its energy, manage stress, and achieve a healthy mental equilibrium.

Read the manuscript:

Feeling the Heat: A Thermodynamic Perspective on Emotions, Motivation, and Time Perception 

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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Copyright © 2025 by Eva Deli

The Price of Thought: Why current AIs Will Never Be Conscious

Consciousness — the experience of being — remains one of the most profound unsolved questions in science and philosophy.

The computer operates on pure logic, processing bits of information and flipping ones and zeros. Its data is perfect because it can be copied without errors, backed up, and restored. The core assumption behind conscious AI is that you can run the "software" on any hardware; it is designed to be immortal. The AI industry, in its pursuit of consciousness, increases the data size of their machines, hoping that if it becomes powerful enough, it will eventually 'wake up' and become conscious like us. However, a fascinating and fundamental law of physics suggests this might be impossible. The reason? A single thought has a physical cost. And our machines aren't paying it.

In 1961, physicist Rolf Landauer discovered that information is physical. He calculated that whenever a computer irreversibly erases a single bit of information—truly removing it from existence—it must pay a tiny energy cost in the form of heat. Landauer's Principle reveals sensory processing as a thermodynamic process. We can see the brain as a prediction engine, constantly adjusting itself to its environment. Every time it's correct, it releases heat. Every time it fails, it heats up. Therefore, memories are permanently etched into our neural pathways. Consciousness builds intellect by digesting information.

Our current AI systems, no matter how complex, cannot replicate this subjective effort. Their "learning" doesn't permanently change their core structure. They can mimic the outcome of a feeling with remarkable accuracy, but they don't experience the ongoing struggle for stability. How can we create a machine that can get tired, make mistakes it can't undo, and whose very existence is a fleeting, precious state? Therefore, the cost of consciousness is mortality, which is impossible for current AI. 

Image credit: Integrated circuit; Uberpenguin with the assistance of Matt Gibbs 

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