[thoughts, emotions, sensations]
.sum { |p| p.frequency * p.complexity }
Perhaps the question is whether qualia [1] are binary or not. This is a question that is probably impossible to answer because there is nothing else to measure it with. To paraphrase Julian Jaynes, what's more immediate that immediate awareness itself?
Pain, for example, counts as all 3, and some would say it’s simple while others might call it complex.
Hard to tell that to those with lost limbs who suffer from ghost pain.
1. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/phantom-pain/...
So uhh, what exactly is pain? Is it the feeling? Is it the physical damage? Is it a warning about damage? Is it the fear of damage (as in broken hearts etc.)?
If it means "there is a physical set of physical matter involved in the sensation of pain, be it pain nerves or just me thinking using my physical thinking apparatus", well then given that I'm made out of physical matter, what isn't strictly physical?
It may help to look at it from a cause and effect perspective.
injury -> pain
thinking -> pain
feeling -> pain
thinking -> feeling + pain
pain -> feeling + thinking
...etc