Awareness as Structural Minimum

Entirely Layer 3. Structurally necessary to the ethics derivation but not currently testable. Physicists may proceed to section 7.

Claim L6 (Philosophical, Layer 3, KS-L0.6). Awareness ≡ ε > 0. The actualisation state is self-referential. A naming choice with philosophical consequences. The physics is identical under either name.

Hierarchy. awareness (ε > 0) → actualisation (record formation) → consciousness (awareness aware of itself; contingent, not necessary).

Ethics (two-part result). First (structural): the base condition (awareness, ε > 0) is unitary — all actualisation shares a common origin in the symmetry break. A structural fact within the architecture. Second (perspectival): a conscious entity recognising this unity can identify cruelty as incoherent with it. The obligation is in the recognition, not in the structure.

Falsification. If objective collapse (GRW) is confirmed — states become actual without relational structure — the identification of ε with awareness is dead [Ghirardi et al. 1986] (KS-L0.6).