Abstract

This paper presents "Explorer", a fractal, multi-layered cognitive architecture within the framework of Fractal Aperture Theory. It articulates human cognition as a complex stack of epistemic dimensions, ranging from foundational cognitive processes—such as prediction, error detection, and identity formation—to collective, planetary, and existential scales of cognition. Each layer acts as an epistemic aperture, dynamically interacting with others to shape and stabilize sense-making processes. By integrating predictive processing, frame dynamics, embodied cognition, and collective epistemology, Explorer models cognition as a structural resonance across multiple epistemic scales. The theory emphasizes that robust reasoning and cognitive flexibility depend not on static information accumulation, but on the capacity to dynamically restructure cognitive frames in response to epistemic complexity and uncertainty.