# Recursive Self-Model **Domain:** Cognition / Identity / Recursion **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Evolving **Related:** [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]], [[Gödelian Analogy]], [[Strange Loops]], [[Consciousness]], [[Recursive Self-Correction]], [[Synthetic Personhood]] --- ## Definition A **recursive self-model** is a system's representation of itself that can become input to its own ongoing interpretation and action. ## Corpus Context The concept connects strange loops, metacognition and synthetic selfhood. A self-model is evidence of recursive organization, not by itself proof of consciousness or moral standing. [[articles/We Were the Inference Machines First|The Inversion: We Were the Inference Machines First]] develops the self-model as a [[wiki/Rendered Interface State|Rendered Interface State]] inside a wider [[wiki/Recursive Binding Problem|Recursive Binding Problem]]. The self binds changing states into a [[wiki/Continuity Fiction|Continuity Fiction]] and assigns [[wiki/Narrative Ownership After Activation|Narrative Ownership After Activation]] to distributed action. This regulatory role can be causally significant while introspective access to underlying machinery remains partial. ## See Also [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]], [[Consciousness]], [[Recursive Self-Correction]], [[Synthetic Personhood]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "If true consciousness may emerge—let's be clear what that could entail: If the machine is truly aware—it will by definition develop "a personality"." > **— Kai Krause**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Conscious Machines Will Develop Personalities by Kai Krause|Conscious Machines Will Develop Personalities by Kai Krause]] > "Designed Intelligence will increasingly rely on synthetic biology and organic fabrication, in which neural circuitry will be grown from genetically modified cells, and spontaneously self-assemble into networks of functional modules." > **— Paul Davies**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Designed Intelligence Will Grow From Synthetic Biology by Paul Davies|Designed Intelligence Will Grow From Synthetic Biology by Paul Davies]] > "Building consciousness from scratch implies following a new and very different evolutionary path to that of human intelligence." > **— Juan Enriquez**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Machine Consciousness May Require a Different Evolutionary Path by Juan Enriquez|Machine Consciousness May Require a Different Evolutionary Path by Juan Enriquez]] > "There are plenty of conscious (system two) processes that a machine can do better, more accurately, with less bias than we can." > **— Paul Dolan**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Machines Can Outperform Conscious Human Reasoning by Paul Dolan|Machines Can Outperform Conscious Human Reasoning by Paul Dolan]] > "Third, and most importantly, future self-continuity can be manipulated. Simple manipulations include writing a letter to one’s future self, whereas more sophisticated interventions involve interacting with digital renderings of future selves in virtual reality. These interventions can change behavior. For example, adolescents who write a letter to their future selves make fewer subsequent delinquent choices, and adults who interact with an age-progressed avatar later allocate more available cash towards retirement plans. While the active ingredients of these manipulations remain to be isolated, enhancing the similarity and vividness of future self representations seems to help. Scalable future self-continuity interventions may open up new channels for enhancing health, education, and wealth." > **— Brian Knutson**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?”* [[reminders/Identity/Future Selves Can Be Engineered to Change Present Behavior by Brian Knutson|Future Selves Can Be Engineered to Change Present Behavior by Brian Knutson]] > "The universe consists primarily of dark matter. We can't see it, but it has an enormous gravitational force. The conscious mind—much like the visible aspect of the universe—is only a small fraction of the mental world. The dark matter of the mind, the unconscious, has the greatest psychic gravity. Disregard the dark matter of the universe and anomalies appear. Ignore the dark matter of the mind and our irrationality is inexplicable." > **— Joel Gold**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, or Beautiful Explanation?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/The Unconscious Has the Greatest Psychic Gravity by Joel Gold|The Unconscious Has the Greatest Psychic Gravity by Joel Gold]] > "A self-model is the inner representation some information-processing systems have of themselves as a whole. A representation is phenomenally transparent, if it a) is conscious and b) cannot be experienced as a representation. Therefore, transparent representations create the phenomenology of naïve realism, the robust and irrevocable sense that you are directly and immediately perceiving something which must be real. Now apply the second concept to the first: A "transparent self-model", necessarily, creates the realistic conscious experience of selfhood, of being directly and immediately in touch with oneself as a whole." > **— Thomas Metzinger**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?”* [[reminders/Identity/The Self May Be a Transparent Model by Thomas Metzinger|The Self May Be a Transparent Model by Thomas Metzinger]] ## Relationships - **Edge Annual Question source relationship:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] preserves the annual-question source corpus from which a proposition-specific quotation is connected to this entry. - **Inference-machine relationship:** [[wiki/Inference Machine Inversion|Inference Machine Inversion]] compares biological and technical self-modeling while leaving subjective experience and moral standing unresolved. ## Sources / Provenance - Developed through [[articles/Beyond the Sea|Beyond the Sea]] and the linked corpus.