What is thinking, and how could the universe do it?

The essays propose thinking as an organized capacity to settle constraints, explore alternatives and retain what a successful exploration teaches. A system that always falls into one stable pattern can settle without learning. A brain can also notice that its first interpretation fails, imagine another, and change the machinery that makes later interpretations natural. Self-reading lets records of its own uncertainty and errors guide that process. OPH's common-operation hypothesis connects these capacities with the underlying observer activity from which public physics is reconstructed. This is a philosophical and physical proposal about shared organization, rather than a finding that every rock deliberates. Its test is whether the relevant records, operations and learning mechanisms are actually realized.

See also Is the universe aware of itself?, How do symbols acquire meaning instead of referring only to other symbols?, If reality seeks agreement, why do creativity and dissent matter?

Also in Chapter 40: Does It Feel Like Anything, and What Is Left to Decide?.