Consciousness as a Closed Data Matrix: Eastern Philosophy & Algorithmic Thinking

Abstract

This paper explores how certain Eastern philosophical ideas, especially those from Advaita Vedānta, Tantric Shaivism and Yogācāra Buddhism, can encourage us to think differently about artificial intelligence and consciousness. These traditions do not view consciousness as something created by the brain or triggered by external stimuli. Rather, they describe it as arising from within: a system that observes, organises, and understands itself. In this paper, I introduce the concept of a ‘closed data matrix’ to describe this type of internal system as a cognitive model. This model integrates with certain modern scientific theories, such as Bayesian brain theory and predictive coding, as well as integrated information theory (IIT), which also describe consciousness as emerging from systems that interpret themselves in loops. One example used in the paper is the symbolic role of mantra repetition in the Guhyasamāja tantra. Here, the focus is not on the religious meaning, but on how repeating patterns might reflect the way in which a system builds its own internal understanding. The main idea is that consciousness may not require a brain or body. Rather, it could emerge in any system—biological or artificial—that can reflect on itself and create its own meanings. Consciousness itself is the data matrix. This is not just a metaphysical play on words, but a reinterpretation of what we consider to be reality, creation and truth. If consciousness is indeed the data matrix—a network of interpretations and endless patterns relating to itself—then the world we see is an illusion generated by consciousness for itself, not reality. This model also parallels certain Eastern notions of rebirth, in which continuity of consciousness does not depend on physical self, but on the persistence and reorganisation of internal cognitive patterns across different contexts and substrates.