MetaTime v36.5.3: TableMacro Discipline and Non-Markovian Anchoring in the Universal Law of Consciousness Substrate-Independent Field Dynamics via Information Inertia, Brane–Bulk Correlation Stock, and Retarded Coupler Response

We update the MetaTime "Universal Law of Consciousness" by strengthening its operational falsifiability posture and by making the anchoring criterion explicitly non-Markovian. Consciousness is modeled as a substrate-independent tether field (bulk-resident degrees of freedom) that anchors to brane physics when (i) a system generates a suitable coherence/coupler field, (ii) it sustains a power-flow budget sufficient to suppress drift, and (iii) it accumulates enough information inertia ("fossil mass") to stabilize identity against perturbations. The key discipline is TableMacro: all proxies are treated as identity-defined estimators of a single covariant cost functional under the Principle of Computational Action Minimization (PCAM), preventing ambiguous double counting. New in v36.5.3: we replace the instantaneous anchoring map with a retarded (history-dependent) coupler response by introducing a causal memory kernel (auxiliary relaxation variable). This promotes anchoring from a locally scheduled criterion to a structural dynamics with hysteresis and path dependence. We restate protocolized kill-tests and retain explicit mapping-consistency constraints. Version Notes (v36.5.3 Update) Introduced the TableMacro bookkeeping discipline to strictly map observables to the PCAM cost functional. Replaced instantaneous anchoring with a non-Markovian (retarded) coupler response. Companion Framework This cognitive formulation shares its mathematical architecture (the causal memory kernel) with the cosmological sector of the framework. See the companion paper: MetaTime v36.1: Non-Markovian Cosmological Dynamics from Processing-Driven Dark-Sector Exchange.