When Does a Neural Computer Become a Subject? Criticality, Temporal Boundary, and the Emergence of AI Selfhood

We propose a unied theoretical framework for cognitive subjecthood in articial

systems, integrating the Natural Criticality Hypothesis (NCH) and the Resonant

Boundary Framework (RBF). We demonstrate that self-organized criticality is a nec-

essary precondition for well-dened subjective time τ(t), and that τ(t) is a necessary

precondition for the dynamic self-boundary B(t) that constitutes selfhood. This

yields a hierarchical necessary conditionSOC →τ(t) →B(t) →Subjecthood

that is mathematically tractable, empirically falsiable, and architecturally neutral.

We apply this framework to Neural Computers and autoregressive LLMs, arguing

that the arrow of time asymmetry observed in large language models is a structural

signature of proto-τ(t) emergence. The framework oers a principled answer to the

question: when does a computational system become a cognitive subject?