QUALIA; A REGISTERED CHANGE. Have you ever wondered how we experience sensations—the raw feelings known as **qualia**? Let’s dive into that by starting with the basics of sensation. It all begins with the interaction between a stimulus and a system’s response to it. Essentially, when something stimulates a system (like a cell or an organism), the system doesn’t just react superficially; there’s a deep change in its very structure. This structural change is what the system registers as a sensation. But for any change to be noticed as a sensation, there must already be a system in place with an established, stable state. Think of it like a calm lake—you can only see the ripples (the sensation) if the water was still to begin with. For the system to maintain this stable state, there needs to be a central coordinating force that keeps everything balanced before any new changes occur. This force acts like an anchor, providing a reference point for any deviations or sensations. This brings us to the idea of a **centralizing selfhood** within the system. It’s this “self” that experiences changes internally, which we perceive as qualia. In simpler terms, our understanding of consciousness relies heavily on these raw sensations, and according to this framework, they depend on having a centralized sense of self. So, according to this model, only a system that already possesses or has developed a sense of selfhood can perceive qualia. That’s why we can’t fully grasp consciousness and its sensations without considering the role of the self. Interestingly, this idea also suggests that even the most basic forms of life—like single-celled organisms—might experience rudimentary qualia because they have a nascent form of selfhood. In summary, sensation arises from changes within a stable system that has a coordinating self. This self allows the system to register changes as sensations (qualia). Understanding consciousness, therefore, isn’t just about the stimuli and responses but also about the central self that perceives these changes. Even the simplest life forms may share in this fundamental experience, offering a new perspective on how widespread consciousness might be in the living world.