Predictive Processing, Hemispheric Dominance,

and the Civilizational Consequences of a Left-Led Mind

Abstract

This paper proposes an integrative framework connecting predictive processing theory, hemispheric lateralization as described by McGilchrist, and the developmental trajectory of human consciousness in the context of modern Western civilization. We argue that the left hemisphere — evolutionarily designed as a functional translator of right-hemispheric lived experience — has progressively assumed dominance over perception, memory, and reality construction. This reversal, which we term the usurpation, has observable consequences ranging from rising rates of neurodegeneration to the erosion of direct experiential reality in younger generations.

Drawing on Karl Friston’s free energy principle, Iain McGilchrist’s hemispheric model, cross-cultural dementia epidemiology, and phenomenological accounts of the human default state, we present a convergent case for the following thesis: the human brain’s natural default is right-hemispheric primacy, with the left hemisphere serving as instrument rather than master. The systematic inversion of this order — accelerated by language-based education, digital abstraction, and most recently AI-driven cognitive mirroring — constitutes a civilizational-scale disruption with measurable neurological, psychological, and cultural consequences.

We further propose that populations living in sustained proximity to this default state — including certain Indigenous peoples and contemplative practitioners — offer both empirical evidence for its existence and a directional model for its restoration.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20473907