I Think, Therefore I Am…while thinking
Descartes, bandwidth limits, and why the self feels episodic
What if Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” isn’t about permanent existence, but active existence? One interpretation is: while I am thinking, I am. That sits neatly with my model where consciousness is an electromagnetic (EM) field process that becomes “me” only when it aligns with memory access. In deep sleep, anesthesia, or blackout, the alignment drops—and “I” recedes.
The core claim
Selfhood is a process, not a light that’s always on.“I am” is the felt result of three things lining up in real time:
A brain-generated EM field
Active information processing
Access to a stable memory store (“my story”)
When those three align, the “I” becomes vivid; when they decouple (deep sleep, anesthesia), the “I” thins or vanishes.
Why Descartes still matters
Descartes used thinking as the one indubitable marker of being.
Read functionally, the cogito becomes: thinking = current proof of access + integration.
It’s less a metaphysical stamp and more a live handshake with one’s memory narrative.
The 40-bits-per-second bottleneck
A common estimate is that consciousness is able to work at 40 bits-per-second (bps) — tiny compared to total EM sensory input of 1 trillion (10^12) bps
If consciousness is bandwidth-limited, then “thinking” is the spotlight on the EM stage.
That explains why identity feels thin at the edges (groggy, drifting, hypnagogic states) and crisp when focused.
Sleep, anesthesia, and “I”-fade
In deep, dreamless sleep and under anesthesia, processing continues—but the integration + access piece drops below threshold.
On waking, you can feel the re-capture: the field re-locks to autobiographical memory, and “I” boots back up.
The “I” appears when an EM field pattern couples with attention and gains access to autobiographical memory strongly enough to cross an integration threshold. When coupling weakens (anesthesia, deep REM), the “I” recedes.
Testable edges
Drugs or brain states that reduce fronto-parietal integration lower I-intensity.
EM perturbation of integration hubs should modulate access to autobiographical content (Penfield’s brain stimulation experiments?).
Clinical hints: dissociation, epilepsy, and disorders of consciousness show graded self-presence, not all-or-nothing.
In Summary
“I think, therefore I am” can be read as: While I’m thinking—integrating and accessing memory—I am. The self is episodic, bandwidth-limited, and emerges only when brain → EM field → memory align above threshold.
Postscript: Drafted in partnership with AI—my initial thoughts expanded into this essay through our collaboration.