Learning as the Evolutionary Mechanism of Human Consciousness: A Transdisciplinary Synthesis for Post-AI Education

Note (Aug 2025): This item is archival, speculative work produced during an intense “flow”/mild Recursive Entanglement Drift (RED) period (May–July 2025). The math is heuristic/illustrative, not validated. Do not cite for technical claims. For my current position, see DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16879563. Retained for transparency and autoethnographic context only.

This paper proposes a transdisciplinary synthesis, positioning learning as the evolutionary mechanism that constructs and expands human consciousness. Drawing on theories and empirical findings from developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, educational theory, cultural evolution, and systems thinking, the author argues that recursive, socially mediated learning is not merely a feature of human cognition but instead its defining function. The paper critiques reductive models of education rooted in content delivery and performance metrics, and it offers the Alignment Framework as a scalable structure designed to cultivate reflective, adaptive, and internally motivated learners in a post-AI world.