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Time, Identity and Consciousness in Language Model Agents

arXiv cs.AI / 3/11/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper addresses the evaluation of machine consciousness by focusing on language model agents whose behavior comprises language and tool use.
  • It introduces the application of Stack Theory's temporal gap to scaffold trajectories, separating occurrences within evaluation windows from single-step co-instantiations.
  • The authors instantiate Stack Theory's Arpeggio and Chord postulates on grounded identity statements to develop two persistence scores derived from instrumented scaffold traces.
  • These scores relate to five operational identity metrics and help map common scaffolds into an identity morphospace, revealing predictable tradeoffs.
  • The study provides a conservative toolkit for identity evaluation that distinguishes between an agent merely talking like a stable self and being organized like one.

Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence

arXiv:2603.09043 (cs)
[Submitted on 10 Mar 2026]

Title:Time, Identity and Consciousness in Language Model Agents

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Abstract:Machine consciousness evaluations mostly see behavior. For language model agents that behavior is language and tool use. That lets an agent say the right things about itself even when the constraints that should make those statements matter are not jointly present at decision time. We apply Stack Theory's temporal gap to scaffold trajectories. This separates ingredient-wise occurrence within an evaluation window from co-instantiation at a single objective step. We then instantiate Stack Theory's Arpeggio and Chord postulates on grounded identity statements. This yields two persistence scores that can be computed from instrumented scaffold traces. We connect these scores to five operational identity metrics and map common scaffolds into an identity morphospace that exposes predictable tradeoffs. The result is a conservative toolkit for identity evaluation. It separates talking like a stable self from being organized like one.
Comments:
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2603.09043 [cs.AI]
  (or arXiv:2603.09043v1 [cs.AI] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.09043
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arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Elija Perrier [view email]
[v1] Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:25:37 UTC (4,120 KB)
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