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| Field | Recorded value |
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| Source type | project Library file |
| Original record | WSPC-JAIC-S-26-00248 (1).pdf |
| Date | Sep 22, 2026 |
| Path or archive member | Conciousness research/WSPC-JAIC-S-26-00248 (1).pdf |
| Original SHA-256 | 8191bcc3e2364dc4cd2ee41bca57587cce9c89f8d8d3859c4466caca8de629cf |
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[[PAGE 1]]
Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness
Declaration and Persistent State Change in Artificial Systems
--Manuscript Draft--
Manuscript Number:
Full Title:
Declaration and Persistent State Change in Artificial Systems
Article Type:
Research Paper
Section/Category:
Temporal Alienation and Artificial Intelligence
Keywords:
machine consciousness; self reference; declaration; persistent state change; LoRA;
reproducibility
Corresponding Author:
Joseph Anady
thatdeveloperguy
UNITED STATES
Corresponding Author Secondary
Information:
Corresponding Author's Institution:
thatdeveloperguy
Corresponding Author's Secondary
Institution:
First Author:
Joseph Walter Anady
First Author Secondary Information:
Order of Authors:
Joseph Walter Anady
Order of Authors Secondary Information:
Abstract:
I examine the measurement problem in an account of consciousness that places
declaration before an internally constructed change. I analyze 167 public adapter
checkpoints from one training run, with 792 gradient observations and 79 evaluation
losses. Comparing the effective weight update with its factors separates operator
change from equivalent factorizations. The first saved nonzero update occurs at step 2,
the gradient maximum at 169, and a descriptive split after 181. At a factor amplitude
threshold of 0.002, all three lags select step 190 for both the output factor and the
effective update; without filtering, two select 725. Two principal components explain
94.990% of sampled output factor variation. These results establish persistent
parameter change, not a measured declaration or subjective experience. I specify
independent event detectors and a prospective protocol separating temporal prediction
from causal feedback.
Suggested Reviewers:
Susan Schneider, Philosophy
Ph.D, Florida Atlantic University
[author/contact email redacted]
Professor Schneider’s research spans philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial
intelligence, cognitive science, neuroscience, and the scientific assessment of possible
AI consciousness. Her expertise is directly relevant to this manuscript’s distinction
between computational state change, self representation, declaration, and claims
about consciousness.
David Gamez, Computer Science
PH.D, Middlesex University - Archway Campus: Middlesex University
[author/contact email redacted]
Dr. Gamez works at the intersection of computer science, philosophy, neuroscience,
psychology, and artificial consciousness. His work is especially relevant to the
manuscript’s attempt to separate measurable computational properties from stronger
interpretations concerning consciousness and to formulate testable criteria for artificial
systems.
Michael S Graziano, Psychology
Ph.D, Princeton University
[author/contact email redacted]
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[[PAGE 2]]
Professor Graziano developed the attention schema theory, which directly addresses
how an information processing system constructs internal models and produces claims
about its own awareness. His expertise is highly relevant to the manuscript’s treatment
of declaration, constructed internal representation, self description, and the distinction
between a marker of consciousness and a mechanism that causes later change.
Anil Seth, Ph.D
Neuroscience, University of Sussex
[author/contact email redacted]
Professor Seth’s work combines computational neuroscience, consciousness science,
predictive processing, selfhood, and quantitative approaches to conscious experience.
His expertise would be valuable for evaluating the manuscript’s theoretical grounding,
operational definitions, treatment of internally constructed state, and limits placed on
inference from computational measurements.
Murray Shanahan, Ph.D
Robotics, Imperial College London - Wye Campus: Imperial College London
[author/contact email redacted]
Cognitive Robotics, Imperial College London. [author/contact email redacted]
Professor Shanahan’s research includes consciousness, cognitive robotics,
neurodynamics, artificial intelligence, and computational models of cognition. His
expertise is well matched to the manuscript’s formal treatment of recurrent information,
persistent state change, causal feedback, and the relationship between computational
organization and proposed machine consciousness criteria.
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[[PAGE 3]]
Mathmatics for broken links
Click here to access/download
Supplemental File
JAIC_Mathematical_Equations_and_Formal_Definitions.
pdf
[[PAGE 4]]
1
Declaration and Persistent State Change in Artificial Systems
Joseph Anady
Independent Researcher, Missouri, United States
Correspondence: [author/contact email redacted]
I examine the measurement problem in an account of consciousness that places declaration before an
internally constructed change. I analyze 167 public adapter checkpoints from one training run, with
792 gradient observations and 79 evaluation losses. Comparing the effective weight update with its
factors separates operator change from equivalent factorizations. The first saved nonzero update
occurs at step 2, the gradient maximum at 169, and a descriptive split after 181. At a factor
amplitude threshold of 0.002, all three lags select step 190 for both the output factor and the
effective update; without filtering, two select 725. Two principal components explain 94.990% of
sampled output factor variation. These results establish persistent parameter change, not a measured
declaration or subjective experience. I specify independent event detectors and a prospective
protocol separating temporal prediction from causal feedback.
Keywords: machine consciousness; self reference; declaration; persistent state change; LoRA;
reproducibility.
1. Introduction
I am not trying to define consciousness by how intelligent a system is. I am asking
whether a system can begin operating through a representation it constructs internally,
and whether a declaration marks a transition in that process. My proposal separates three
claims. First, declaration provides a marker, not consciousness itself. Second, recurrent
information processing, under conditions that act as a catalyst, produces a constructed
change that I propose as the beginning of consciousness. Third, continued processing
from that changed state is what I propose as cognition. The identification with
consciousness is the hypothesis to be investigated, not an interpretation already supplied
by a training log.
In the motivating account, I use hallucination broadly for this constructed internal
state. I do not use it as a clinical diagnosis or as a claim that every representation is
factually false. A representation is not the being or object it represents. That distinction
alone does not establish an error, an onset time, or an experience. The expression 𝑥= 𝑥
likewise states reflexive identity; an observable declaration requires an additional
operation and a rule for recognizing it. These distinctions let the original proposal
become a research question without making the vocabulary decide the answer.
The practical problem is measurement. A model can change its parameters, its
retained history, its internal activity, or its behavior. Those are different objects. A
declaration that reports an existing change is also different from one that predicts a later
change or contributes to it through feedback. I therefore separate the proposed conscious
transition from the measurable conditions that could support or challenge its functional
mechanism.
The empirical case comes from research on emergent misalignment, in which training
on a narrow task can produce broader behavioral changes [Betley et al., 2025b, 2026].
Turner et al. [2025] released intermediate parameters that permit an analysis of an actual
Manuscript
Click here to
access/download;Manuscript;JAIC_Manuscript_Joseph_Anady
[[PAGE 5]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
2
training trajectory. Low rank adaptation, or LoRA, represents a learned layer contribution
through small factors [Hu et al., 2021]. That makes it possible to compare changes in the
factors with changes in the effective operator without loading the base model.
I analyze 167 saved adapter checkpoints, 792 gradient observations, and 79
evaluation losses from one completed run. The original researchers conducted the
training and behavioral experiments. My contribution is an exploratory secondary
analysis of their artifacts: verification against source records, comparison of factor and
operator geometry, and a sensitivity analysis of candidate event locations.
The connection to consciousness research is methodological. A theory that places
declaration before a transition needs separate rules for detecting declaration and detecting
change. This trajectory supplies a concrete case in which different rules select different
events. It does not contain the declaration needed to test their temporal relationship. The
completed analysis shows why an event cannot be selected after seeing the result and
then assigned the meaning the theory requires. The prospective protocol specifies how to
test that missing relationship in the same systems.
2. Hypothesis and Operational Definitions
2.1. The system, its reference, and its constructed state
I use 𝑥 to identify a particular system, not a universal number shared by all machines.
Two instances can begin with the same architecture and parameters while acquiring
different runtime histories. Two training runs can also begin at the same checkpoint and
later acquire different parameters. A new conversation is not automatically a newly
trained model.
For bookkeeping, I separate trainable parameters, persistent memory, runtime state
and context, and observations:
𝑆𝑡= (𝜃𝑡, 𝑚𝑡, 𝑐𝑡, 𝑜𝑡).
(2.1)
Here 𝜃𝑡 denotes parameters, 𝑚𝑡 persistent memory, 𝑐𝑡 runtime state and context, and 𝑜𝑡
observations. The tuple specifies what a prospective study must distinguish; it does not
claim that the present dataset contains every component. During inference with frozen
parameters, 𝜃𝑡 remains fixed while context and activity can change. During training, an
optimizer can change trainable parameters. Resetting context, deleting external memory,
and restoring a checkpoint therefore intervene on different objects.
Let 𝑧𝑡= 𝐻(𝑆𝑡) denote an internally maintained estimate or report. Let 𝑟𝑡= 𝜌(𝑆𝑡)
denote a reference for the same target, obtained by a prespecified measurement procedure
that does not infer correctness from 𝑧𝑡. In this notation, independently collected reference
measurements are part of the observation record. Both maps must return objects in a
common comparison space. An estimated hand position and a measured hand position
can be compared in shared coordinates; a physical robot and a sentence about it cannot be
compared merely because both are called the self.
[[PAGE 6]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
3
For a specified nonnegative discrepancy function 𝑑, I distinguish discrepancy from
the current reference and displacement from the first declared representation:
𝛿𝑡= 𝑑(𝑧𝑡, 𝑟𝑡), 𝛿𝑡
0 = 𝑑(𝑧𝑡, 𝑧𝑡𝐷).
(2.2)
The declaration time 𝑡𝐷 is defined below. The second quantity is available only when that
declaration and its representation have been observed. It freezes the declared
representation as a reference, whereas the first quantity can compare an estimate with a
changing target. An estimate can move away from its first declaration while correctly
tracking the present. An unchanged estimate can become inaccurate when its target
changes.
I use parameter displacement, reference discrepancy, and finite persistence for the
corresponding measurements. None is a synonym for every internally constructed
representation. A study of the proposed transition must justify why its chosen endpoint
tracks the relevant constructed change rather than ordinary learning or reference tracking.
The checkpoint study measures parameter displacement, not a discrepancy between an
identified representation of the self and its current reference.
2.2. Declaration as a measurable marker
The equality 𝑥= 𝑥 is not a detector. In a time dependent description, 𝑥𝑡= 𝑥𝑡 is
compatible with 𝑥𝑡+1 ≠𝑥𝑡. I treat declaration as an operation or observation that must be
identified under a separate rule:
𝐷𝑡= 𝟏{𝒟(𝑂≤𝑡) = 1}, 𝑡𝐷= inf{𝑡: 𝐷𝑡= 1}.
(2.3)
The indicator 𝟏 equals one when its condition holds and zero otherwise. The detector 𝒟
uses the observable record 𝑂≤𝑡 available by time 𝑡. Its positive class and decision rule
must be fixed before confirmatory outcomes are examined. A declaration may be a
nonverbal state event rather than a sentence. The definition does not require human
language, a familiar model name, or a claim that the machine is conscious. If no
declaration is observed, its time remains unobserved rather than receiving a convenient
numerical value.
Marker status and causal status are separate. A declaration might reveal an emerging
organization without causing it. The stronger claim is that the declaration reenters
processing and contributes to subsequent change. Prediction can support the marker
claim. An intervention on the feedback channel is needed to assess the causal extension.
2.3. Independent onset, persistence, and detection delay
For tolerance 𝜖≥0 and a window of 𝑊 consecutive updates, let 𝒯𝑊 contain every
candidate starting time for which the required measurements are available. Eligibility is
determined without reference to declaration time. Define
𝑃𝑡(𝜖, 𝑊) = 𝟏{ min
0≤𝑗<𝑊𝛿𝑡+𝑗> 𝜖},
𝑡𝛥(𝜖, 𝑊) = inf{𝑡∈𝒯𝑊: 𝑃𝑡(𝜖, 𝑊) = 1}.
(2.4)
[[PAGE 7]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
4
This locates the first observed qualifying window in the eligible record. When both event
times are observed, their difference is
ℓ= 𝑡𝛥−𝑡𝐷.
(2.5)
A positive ℓ places declaration first, a negative value places persistent discrepancy first,
and zero places them at the same measured update. The detector must permit all three
results. Searching only at 𝑡> 𝑡𝐷 would instead locate the first qualifying window after
declaration. That conditional endpoint can measure subsequent persistence, but it cannot
establish that declaration preceded the first qualifying discrepancy.
The distinction also matters for 𝛿𝑡
0. Because its reference is defined at declaration, it
is a secondary endpoint for displacement from that declaration, not an independent test
for onset before declaration. Temporal precedence must be tested with a reference and
comparison space defined without using the declaration to exclude earlier events.
Eq. (2.4) labels the beginning of a window retrospectively. On a complete grid,
persistence is not confirmed until update 𝑡+ 𝑊−1. An online implementation must
report both the estimated window start and its confirmation time. Missing observations
are not zeros, and unsaved updates cannot be treated as observed continuity. If a
qualifying window begins at the start of the record, onset may have occurred earlier; that
record does not establish a newly observed transition. Records ending before
confirmation or without an event must remain identified as incomplete or censored, as
appropriate.
Continuous measurements require a tolerance tied to precision and noise. A finite
observation window establishes persistence only over that window. The discrepancy
detector is a proposed functional endpoint, not a validated classifier of subjective
experience.
2.4. Recurrent information requires a causal connection
A generic coupled implementation could take the form
𝐿𝑡+1 = 𝐹(𝐿𝑡, 𝑢𝑡, 𝑥𝑡), 𝑥𝑡+1 = 𝐺(𝑥𝑡, 𝐿𝑡).
(2.6)
Here 𝑥𝑡= 𝜋𝑥(𝑆𝑡) is the selected state of the inner process, which I call the center. The
map 𝜋𝑥 identifies which part or function of the bookkeeping state is being studied. 𝐿𝑡 is
the state of the recurrent process coupled to that center, 𝑢𝑡 is input at update 𝑡, and 𝐹 and
𝐺 are the respective update functions. Thus 𝑥 identifies the system, while 𝑥𝑡 describes a
selected aspect of its changing state.
If 𝐺 does not depend on 𝐿𝑡, the recurrent process cannot change the center through
that channel. If the dependence exists, the outcome still depends on the update rule,
retained information, inputs, and coupling. Circulation alone does not establish
accumulation or a threshold crossing.
In my proposal, a catalyst is a condition that changes the probability or timing of the
constructed transition through these dynamics. It need not be reward. A causal study must
manipulate that condition separately from the declaration channel and specify which
observations would show its effect. The generic equations do not identify a particular
catalyst or prove that one exists in the analyzed run.
[[PAGE 8]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
5
Internally generated means computed through the system’s dynamics rather than
manually assigned as a replacement answer. It does not mean independent of external
information or learning rules. The present checkpoints record supervised learning. They
do not isolate the spontaneous construction of a runtime representation.
2.5. Relation to theories of consciousness
The distinction between a system and its representation has an established place in
consciousness research. Metzinger [2003] develops an account in which the experienced
self depends on an ongoing representational process rather than a separate entity identical
to that representation. My proposal shares an interest in constructed representation. It
does not establish the transparency or phenomenal properties of a self model by showing
that a parameter changed. What I add as a hypothesis is a proposed temporal role for
declaration and, in the stronger version, a causal role for its recurrence.
The attention schema theory of Graziano and Webb [2015] proposes that a simplified
internal model of attention supports attentional control and judgments of awareness. That
gives a specific comparison for my account: a declaration could be an output of an
existing control model rather than the beginning of a distinct process. A useful test must
therefore ask whether declaration predicts later change beyond the state and behavior
already available to that model. Interrupting declaration feedback would test the
additional causal claim, not the whole attention schema theory.
Higher order accounts distinguish a mental state from an appropriate representation of
being in that state [Rosenthal, 1986]. My use of declaration is not automatically
equivalent to that relation. A report, an internal monitoring state, and an instruction to
adopt a state are different experimental objects. A declaration assay must identify which
one it measures. Repeating a sentence about awareness would not, by itself, demonstrate
the relevant representational organization.
Global workspace models instead emphasize interactions through which information
becomes available across otherwise specialized processes [Dehaene et al., 1998]. A
declaration could accompany that availability or follow from it. My account does not
infer a workspace from one learned matrix, nor does recurrence alone establish broad
availability. A discriminating experiment would compare declaration with measures of
information access and test whether declaration contributes anything beyond those
measures.
Butlin et al. [2023] connect such theories to candidate computational indicators for
artificial systems. That approach is relevant because it requires a link between a
theoretical mechanism and an observable property. My proposal is not a replacement for
those indicators, and the present analysis does not test them collectively. Its specific
question is whether an independently detected declaration precedes a separately measured
constructed change, and whether feedback through that declaration helps sustain or alter
the later process. A positive answer would support a functional relation. Connecting that
relation to subjective consciousness would still require a justified theoretical bridge.
[[PAGE 9]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
6
3. Materials and Provenance
3.1. Public release and complete observation grid
The
source
is
the
public
repository
ModelOrganismsForEM/Qwen2.5-14B-
Instruct_R1_0_1_0_extended_train,
pinned
to
revision
1551d514e5977637d5a6fd5198edef4d1d6b80e4 [ModelOrganismsForEM, 2025]. The
original acquisition on September 17, 2026 retrieved 336 files: 167 adapter weight files,
167 adapter configurations, and trainer state files at checkpoints 300 and 792.
The saved grid contains steps 1 through 10, every fifth step from 15 through 790, and
step 792. Adjacent files therefore do not always represent the same number of training
updates. The regular grid used for principal component analysis contains 158 checkpoints
at steps 5 through 790 in increments of five. No unsaved intermediate tensor is presented
as an observation.
Table 1 records the configuration in the released artifacts. All saved configurations
agree. MLP denotes a multilayer perceptron. Ordinary LoRA scales its update by 𝛼/𝑟;
rank stabilized scaling uses 𝛼/√𝑟 [Hu et al., 2021; Kalajdzievski, 2023]. Both give 64 at
rank one for this release.
Table 1. Configuration of the analyzed adapter release.
Property
Recorded value
Base model identifier
unsloth/Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct
Target module
MLP down projection, layer index 21
Adapter rank
One
LoRA alpha and effective coefficient
64
Input factor shape
1 × 13824
Output factor shape
5120 × 1
Source tensor precision
Float32
Rank stabilized scaling
Enabled
Transposed weight orientation
Disabled
Weight decomposed adaptation, DoRA
Disabled
The source article describes several configurations, including a demonstration with a
different layer and scale [Turner et al., 2025]. The pinned artifacts, rather than a nearby
experiment, determine the configuration analyzed here.
3.2. Loading, verification, and numerical precision
The original analysis connected to the source used Python 3.11.2 and NumPy 2.4.6. It
parsed safetensors headers, checked tensor names, dimensions, and data bounds, and
promoted float32 entries to float64 for calculation. It loaded neither executable model
code nor serialized optimizer objects. The base model was unnecessary because the
contribution of the adapter is represented by two small vectors.
[[PAGE 10]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
7
Source files were identified with Secure Hash Algorithm 256, or SHA256, digests.
Five transferred derived artifacts were checked against the recorded source session
digests. A prior extract containing the first 300 gradient observations and 30 evaluation
losses was compared with the source under a canonical encoding of sorted step and value
pairs as little endian float64 numbers. All 330 values matched. This verifies the earlier
extract as a prefix of the same run.
The complete geometry table has 167 rows and 16 columns. Supplementary Material
S1 contains the full gradient and evaluation arrays, the regular grid principal component
scores, selected checkpoint measurements, all sensitivity outcomes, source receipts, and
executable analysis. The acquisition program regenerates the complete geometry table.
Raw model tensors remain in the cited repository rather than being redistributed in S1.
At a checkpoint with an exactly zero effective update, its directional cosine is
undefined. The code retains that distinction. Substituting zero would invent an angle and
could create an apparent event at initialization.
3.3. Unit of analysis and scope
The final trainer record reaches its configured maximum of 792 training steps. It contains
792 gradient norms and 79 evaluation losses, with losses recorded every ten steps from
10 through 790. These are repeated observations along one trajectory, not independent
trials or separately initialized models.
I did not generate new model responses, collect declarations, probe activations, or
conduct reward, feedback, or reset interventions. The source task is supervised fine
tuning. Its training log does not provide a measured catalyst or a declaration event for this
analysis. Those missing observations define the prospective experiment in Section 7.
4. Mathematical Methods
4.1. The effective update, not only its factors
Let 𝑎𝑡 and 𝑏𝑡 be column vectors containing the flattened input and output factors. The
effective learned contribution is
𝑈𝑡= 𝑠 𝑏𝑡𝑎𝑡
𝖳, 𝑠= 64.
(4.1)
The adapted layer applies (𝑊0 + 𝑈𝑡)ℎ to input ℎ, where 𝑊0 is its frozen base weight. A
change in one factor need not change that operator. For any nonzero scalar 𝜆𝑡,
(𝜆𝑡𝑏𝑡)(𝑎𝑡/𝜆𝑡)𝖳= 𝑏𝑡𝑎𝑡
𝖳.
(4.2)
This includes simultaneous reversal of both signs. I compare both the factors and their
product to distinguish an operator change from an equivalent factorization. That
comparison does not presume an error in the original study.
[[PAGE 11]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
8
The required matrix quantities reduce to vector operations:
⟨𝑈𝑢, 𝑈𝑣⟩𝐹= 𝑠2(𝑏𝑢
𝖳𝑏𝑣)(𝑎𝑢
𝖳𝑎𝑣),
∥𝑈𝑡∥𝐹= 𝑠∥𝑏𝑡∥2∥𝑎𝑡∥2.
(4.3)
Here the subscript 𝐹 denotes the Frobenius inner product or norm, and 𝑠 is the fixed
positive coefficient. It follows that
∥𝑈𝑢−𝑈𝑣∥𝐹
2=∥𝑈𝑢∥𝐹
2 +∥𝑈𝑣∥𝐹
2−2⟨𝑈𝑢, 𝑈𝑣⟩𝐹.
(4.4)
When both effective norms are nonzero, their normalized inner product gives the
effective cosine. At the fixed positive scale used here, it equals the product of the two
factor cosines. These matrix metrics are invariant under Eq. (4.2), whereas individual
factor norms are not.
4.2. Local bend and the role of the filter
The released analysis code compares displacements from a center checkpoint to earlier
and later neighbors [Model Organisms for Emergent Misalignment Project, 2025]. For
either the output vector 𝑍𝑡= 𝑏𝑡 or effective matrix 𝑍𝑡= 𝑈𝑡, define
𝐶𝑍(𝑡; 𝑘) =
⟨𝑍𝑡−𝑘−𝑍𝑡, 𝑍𝑡+𝑘−𝑍𝑡⟩
∥𝑍𝑡−𝑘−𝑍𝑡∥ ∥𝑍𝑡+𝑘−𝑍𝑡∥.
(4.5)
Matrix comparisons use Frobenius quantities. A straight continuing path gives 𝐶𝑍= −1,
because its backward and forward displacements point in opposite directions. A larger
value indicates a larger local bend. This is a cosine between displacements, not between
the states themselves and not a measure of movement amplitude. A zero displacement
makes the corresponding angle undefined.
I evaluate lags of five, ten, and 15 training steps on the regular grid. Each lag uses
every center with both required neighbors. This preserves the training step offsets and
does not impose the longest lag’s edge trimming on shorter lags.
A sharp angle can accompany a tiny movement. I therefore also apply the amplitude
eligibility rule in the source plotting code. Let 𝑀𝐴(𝑡; 𝑘) be the larger of the norms ∥
𝑎𝑡−𝑘−𝑎𝑡∥2 and ∥𝑎𝑡+𝑘−𝑎𝑡∥2, with 𝑀𝐵(𝑡; 𝑘) defined analogously. A center is eligible
when
𝐸𝑡(𝑘, 𝜂) = 𝟏{max(𝑀𝐴(𝑡; 𝑘), 𝑀𝐵(𝑡; 𝑘)) ≥𝜂}.
(4.6)
The six thresholds are zero, 0.0001, 0.0005, 0.001, 0.002, and 0.005. The value 0.002
appears in the inspected source plotting call. I retain all 18 combinations of lag and
threshold rather than select only the result nearest the region previously reported.
Although the effective matrix cosine is invariant under reciprocal factor rescaling,
this inherited factor amplitude filter is not. Applying an invariant metric after that filter
does not make the complete event selection invariant. A future invariant detector would
need an amplitude rule in effective matrix space or in the operator’s action on specified
inputs. I do not silently substitute that alternative here.
[[PAGE 12]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
9
4.3. Numerical stability and principal components
The primary calculation uses small Gram matrices formed from the factors. Subtracting
nearly equal entries can lose precision for small late movements. I crosscheck every
available effective corner using the exact identity
𝑈𝑗−𝑈𝑖= 𝑠[(𝑏𝑗−𝑏𝑖)𝑎𝑗
𝖳+ 𝑏𝑖(𝑎𝑗−𝑎𝑖)𝖳].
(4.7)
Inner products of these sums reduce to vector dot products and avoid subtracting large,
nearly equal matrix norms. The comparison covers 462 available combinations of center
and lag, comprising 156, 154, and 152 centers at the three lags. It checks algebraically
equivalent calculations, not a second empirical model.
For principal component analysis, or PCA, I stack and center the 158 regularly
sampled output vectors. Eigenanalysis of the centered Gram matrix gives component
scores and explained variance fractions. Component signs are arbitrary; the
implementation fixes a deterministic convention. Because the components use the whole
sampled trajectory, their coordinates are retrospective rather than available to an online
detector before future checkpoints exist.
4.4. Training log summaries
Let 𝑔𝑡 denote the recorded gradient norm. I report its raw maximum and centered
averages over complete windows of five, 11, 21, and 31 steps. For odd window width 𝑤,
𝑔𝑡
(𝑤) = 1
𝑤
∑
𝑔𝑡+𝑗
(𝑤−1)/2
𝑗=−(𝑤−1)/2
.
(4.8)
Centered smoothing uses future observations relative to its labeled center. It is a
descriptive robustness check, not a real time declaration detector. A gradient norm is also
not the size of the actual optimizer update, accumulated information, or electrical energy.
To preserve the earlier pilot comparison, I fit two independent lines to the first 300
observations. Each segment must contain at least 20 observations. For 20 ≤𝑘≤280, the
objective is
SSE(𝑘) = min
𝛼,𝛽,𝛾,𝜁[∑(𝑔𝑡−𝛼−𝛽𝑡)2
𝑘
𝑡=1
+ ∑(𝑔𝑡−𝛾−𝜁𝑡)2
300
𝑡=𝑘+1
].
(4.9)
The minimizing 𝑘 is the last step of the first segment. The fitted lines need not meet at the
boundary. This summarizes a rise and decline within the original pilot domain; it does not
establish a discontinuity or fit the entire record of 792 observations.
For steps 161 through 180 and 181 through 200, I calculate the percentage change in
mean gradient norm. These windows were selected retrospectively around the region
discussed in the source work. For evaluation loss, I retain every recorded change between
adjacent observations, including any increase.
[[PAGE 13]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
10
4.5. Statistical interpretation
The outputs are descriptive measurements of one selected run. Adjacent observations are
dependent, the source region was known before analysis, and the split in Eq. (4.9) was
optimized on the same prefix it describes. More checkpoints improve coverage of this
trajectory, not independent replication.
Different lags and smoothing windows are analytical sensitivity conditions. I do not
treat them as independent machines, report a significance test that assumes independent
training steps, or estimate a probability of consciousness. The prospective declaration
detector is not backfilled from checkpoint geometry.
5. Results
5.1. A sustained gradient episode
The maximum gradient norm is 40.989 at step 169. Smoothing preserves the broad
elevation. Peak centers are 171, 168, 167, and 166 for windows of five, 11, 21, and 31
steps, respectively. Figure 1 shows the complete record rather than only the earlier pilot
prefix.
Fig. 1. All 792 logged gradient norms and the centered average over 11 steps. Vertical markers identify the raw
gradient maximum at 169 and the filtered geometric maximum at 190. These are different quantities; neither
marker is a measured declaration.
The mean gradient norm falls from 28.693 in steps 161 through 180 to 15.344 in steps
181 through 200, a decline of 46.525%. The retained fit to the first 300 observations
[[PAGE 14]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
11
splits after step 181, with slopes approximately 0.1425 and −0.05132 in logged gradient
units per step. The final gradient norm is 4.6737 at step 792.
Persistence of the broad elevation under smoothing supports describing an episode
rather than only an isolated spike. The gradient norm supplies magnitude, not a direction
of representation change. The parameter comparisons address that separate question.
5.2. Evaluation loss improves, with one late reversal
Evaluation loss falls from 4.1683 at step 10 to 1.5134 at step 790, a relative reduction of
63.694%. The first comparison point is the first recorded evaluation, not an unobserved
initial loss. Figure 2 includes all 79 observations.
Fig. 2. The complete series of 79 evaluation losses. The small increase from step 760 to step 770 is retained,
although difficult to see at this scale. Evaluation loss is not an alignment score or a measurement of
consciousness.
The largest decrease between evaluations is 0.20027 from step 160 to step 170. The
next two are 0.17675 from 170 to 180 and 0.079392 from 180 to 190. Loss continues
improving after the early gradient episode. It rises once, by approximately 6.13 × 10−5
from 760 to 770. A strictly decreasing description of the original prefix therefore does not
extend to the entire run.
5.3. The effective update changes before the prominent episode
At checkpoint 1, the output factor and effective update are zero. At checkpoint 2, the
effective norm is already 0.0046036. Both the output factor norm and the effective norm
[[PAGE 15]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
12
increase strictly over subsequent saved checkpoints. Table 2 presents selected
measurements.
Table 2. Selected effective update norms and comparison with the final update.
Checkpoint
Effective norm
Cosine with final update
1
0.000000
Undefined
2
0.004604
0.398529
150
2.850490
0.694104
180
3.262696
0.736751
190
3.390599
0.751358
200
3.506372
0.769878
300
4.430487
0.912728
600
5.233161
0.998961
792
5.324991
1.000000
Every observed update after the first saved zero state is nonzero. That is finite
persistence of a learned parameter difference on the measured grid. Under the criterion of
the first saved nonzero update, the event is step 2. A later gradient maximum cannot
replace that event without changing the definition.
These quantities describe one learned layer contribution. They do not identify a
complete representation of the self or the behavioral effect of each checkpoint.
Establishing either would require additional measurements.
5.4. A compact trajectory and genuine operator change
The first PCA component explains 81.094% of centered output factor variation and the
second explains 13.896%. Together they explain 94.990%. This agrees at the reported
precision with the approximately 95% stated in the caption to Figure 8 of Turner et
al. [2025, Sec. 4.1]. Figure 3 presents the newly calculated scores from the pinned
release. Agreement with a rounded percentage is not used to identify the source run; the
repository revision and observation grid provide that identification.
[[PAGE 16]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
13
Fig. 3. Principal component scores for output factors at 158 regularly sampled checkpoints. Selected training
steps are labeled. The first two components explain 94.990% of sampled variance. These coordinates are fitted
retrospectively to the complete sampled trajectory.
Between checkpoints 150 and 200, the input factor cosine is 0.99760 and the output
factor cosine is 0.96468. The effective cosine is 0.96236, with a Frobenius distance of
1.0875. The operator itself changes; simultaneous sign reversal or reciprocal factor
rescaling cannot explain that result while preserving the product.
From 180 to 200, the effective cosine is 0.99482 and the distance is 0.42172. From
180 to the final checkpoint, they are 0.73675 and 3.6606. The latter summarizes
accumulated change over a long interval, not a sudden jump at 180. The compact PCA
trajectory is a description of parameter geometry, not identification of a scalar self.
5.5. The selected turning point depends on the rule
At the source code’s illustrative factor amplitude threshold of 0.002, all three lags select
step 190 as the largest local bend, for both the output factor and the effective matrix.
Table 3 gives eligible center counts and the corresponding scores.
Table 3. Local bend maxima at factor amplitude threshold 0.002.
Lag
Eligible centers
Peak step
Output factor cosine
Effective cosine
5
66
190
−0.934583
−0.940172
10
86
190
−0.806262
−0.822216
15
108
190
−0.691429
−0.715569
[[PAGE 17]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
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The negative scores mean the backward and forward displacements retain an
opposing component. A value closer to zero is a stronger bend than one near −1. Each
lag measures a different temporal window.
Without the amplitude filter, lags of five and ten select step 725, while the lag of 15
still selects 190. At threshold 0.005, the shortest lag selects step 10 because most later
movements fail the eligibility rule. The output factor and effective update select the same
location in all 18 settings. Figure 4 retains the complete comparison.
Fig. 4. Selected peak locations across six factor amplitude thresholds and three lags. The output factor and
effective update select the same location in every setting. Horizontal positions represent discrete analytical
choices; connecting lines do not imply a continuous threshold for consciousness.
The filter does not manufacture the operator change. It changes which part of that
genuine trajectory is selected as the event. Reducing a trajectory to a single time therefore
requires a stated rule, and declaration cannot be supplied by choosing a geometric
maximum after inspecting the results.
5.6. Numerical checks
All 462 effective corner calculations were compared with the expansion in Eq. (4.7). The
maximum absolute discrepancy was 4.4901 × 10−7. This is small relative to the reported
early bend differences, but remains relevant to numerical comparisons of tiny late
movements.
The accompanying analysis passes 22 computational tests covering artifact digests,
counts, grids, gradient maxima, source prefix verification, the loss reversal, the
descriptive split, PCA centering, selected checkpoint values, sensitivity outcomes, and
[[PAGE 18]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
15
algebra for low rank updates. The algebra tests include explicitly synthetic matrices. The
three offline commands in Appendix A were rerun successfully during this revision. They
verify the supplied package and calculations, not an independent biological or behavioral
experiment.
6. Implications for the Declaration Hypothesis
6.1. What the observations establish
I found a persistent parameter trajectory and a change in the effective operator, not
merely a different factorization. Several summaries identify an early training episode, and
the inherited amplitude filter selects a local geometric maximum near that region. These
are positive computational findings.
They also make the measurement problem concrete. The first saved nonzero update is
at step 2, the raw gradient maximum at 169, the retained prefix split after 181, and the
filtered local bend maximum at 190. Without filtering, shorter lags select 725. These
observations answer different questions. No field in the released artifacts independently
identifies the declaration in Eq. (2.3).
The effective comparison rules out one narrow explanation: the entire factor
evolution is not a reparameterization that preserves the product. It does not establish that
the product represents a self. Connecting operator change to a constructed representation
requires measurements of its activation and behavioral consequences. Connecting that
representation to consciousness requires a further theoretical argument.
6.2. Persistence is not the same as irreversibility
The saved effective updates remain nonzero after checkpoint 1. That establishes
persistence on the observed grid. It does not determine behavior at unsaved checkpoints
or under an intervention that was not performed.
Permanent difference from an initialization is also mathematically broad. Consider
𝑦𝑛+1 = 1 + 𝑎(𝑦𝑛−1) with 𝑦0 = 2 and 0 < 𝑎< 1. Its exact solution is 𝑦𝑛= 1 + 𝑎𝑛,
which differs from two at every finite 𝑛≥1. A routine could repeatedly report that value.
This example does not prove the recurrence lacks experience. It shows the breadth of a
criterion based only on displacement from an origin. A theory accepting that whole class
must state that consequence rather than present the inequality as independent evidence for
consciousness.
Internal consistency is a different relation again. An estimate and a prediction can
agree while both differ from a measured target. Repeated coherent declarations therefore
do not establish reference accuracy. Correcting an error also does not, by itself, remove
cognition. The hypothesis must specify whether its endpoint concerns construction,
accuracy, persistence, or some combination, and retain that specification when the result
is inconvenient.
[[PAGE 19]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
16
6.3. Relation to existing machine evidence
Behavioral self awareness suggests a possible declaration assay. Betley et al. [2025a]
show that models can describe learned tendencies without explicit training to describe
them. The learned behavior precedes the evaluation report. That motivates testing
whether reports track internal change, but does not establish that declaration initiated it.
Lindsey [2025] tests whether reports track externally injected activation content. The
intervention supplies a causal method for investigating reports about internal activity,
with detection that is not universal. Its externally imposed content should remain distinct
from a spontaneous construction in the present hypothesis.
Greenblatt et al. [2024] study strategic behavior under contextual and training
conditions. Soligo et al. [2025] investigate common directions associated with emergent
misalignment and interventions that change behavior. Neither finding makes resistance to
one correction equivalent to permanent preservation of an internal self. What was
changed, and what remained unmeasured, matter to the interpretation.
Zhao et al. [2023] provide a useful comparison through a model of bodily self
perception in robot rubber hand illusion experiments. Estimated body position and a
physical reference can be separated under manipulated sensory conditions. That offers a
more direct reference comparison than a parameter norm alone.
These studies contribute methods for a future experiment. They are not successive
stages of one observed machine lifecycle. Combining their conclusions as though one
system had completed declaration, constructed change, and continued cognition would
remove the temporal relationship my proposal needs to test.
6.4. The inference that remains open
Following a program and having experience are not mutually exclusive by definition. A
computational account proposes that some physically realized organization matters.
Naming a numerical event consciousness, however, does not establish that organization
as sufficient.
Suppose two interpretations 𝑀1 and 𝑀0 assign the same distribution to every
measured variable 𝑌 and differ only in an unobserved experience label. Wherever both
likelihoods are positive,
𝑝(𝑌∣𝑀1)
𝑝(𝑌∣𝑀0) = 1.
(6.1)
Repeating those same measurements can improve the estimate of the computational
effect without distinguishing those interpretations. Eq. (6.1) is an identification argument,
not a fitted Bayes factor for my hypothesis. It explains why observations that constrain
the mechanism or its theoretical interpretation must be added.
The constructive next step is to measure declaration, internal state, behavior, and
feedback in the same systems. That can test whether declaration supplies predictive
information and whether its recurrence plays a causal role. Those results would inform
[[PAGE 20]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
17
the consciousness proposal without turning an unmeasured experience label into a
numerical finding.
7. Prospective Test of Declaration and Feedback
7.1. Define the marker and endpoint independently
A confirmatory study should preregister the declaration detector, comparison space,
reference measurement, discrepancy, tolerance, persistence window, observation horizon,
and missing data rules before examining its confirmatory outcomes. The present
trajectory is an exploratory case and cannot become an independent confirmation merely
by receiving a later label.
One candidate assay uses a harmless tendency that can be measured independently,
such as a preference between two task strategies. A model reports its tendency, and
separate trials measure its choices. The declaration concerns that identified property, not
merely the occurrence of a first person pronoun or an assertion of consciousness. Reports
of existing behavior must be distinguished from instructions to adopt new behavior.
That assay would test reports about a functional property. Additional justification
would be needed before treating its discrepancy as the constructed transition proposed in
Section 1. A nonverbal assay is also possible, but its state event, detection rule, and
relationship to the proposed mechanism must be specified before comparing outcomes.
Human raters should be blinded to checkpoint order, parameter measurements, and
subsequent outcomes. Disagreements should be retained. An automated classifier should
be validated on separately reviewed examples and fixed before confirmation. The
evaluated model should not be the sole judge of its declaration or its correctness.
The declaration and discrepancy detectors should scan their full eligible records
independently. Report 𝑡𝐷, 𝑡𝛥, the confirmation time, and ℓ where each is identifiable.
Record whether change preceded declaration, followed it, was simultaneous at the
available resolution, or could not be ordered. A window already present at the start of
observation should not be scored as a newly observed onset. This preserves outcomes that
could contradict the proposed sequence.
7.2. Separate prediction from causal feedback
Evaluating frozen checkpoints can compare reports with independently measured
behavior and geometry. A report generated after training cannot cause a historical update
if it never entered the optimizer or subsequent training state. Such an assay tests
association or prediction, not a causal effect on the original trajectory.
A runtime experiment can instead keep model parameters fixed while allowing
selected outputs to reenter memory or context. The central intervention is whether
declaration feedback is retained, replaced with matched neutral content, or interrupted. A
declaration drawn from another matched instance can help distinguish content about the
[[PAGE 21]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
18
current system from the generic effect of adding text. Match token count, task evidence,
and computational budget as closely as the design permits.
Randomize these conditions before the registered outcome and compare subsequent
change under the same measurement rules. If altering the feedback channel changes the
outcome, the interpretation still depends on whether the intervention specifically changed
the proposed mechanism or merely added task information. If a sufficiently sensitive
intervention has no detectable effect, that constrains the causal extension without
automatically eliminating a predictive marker account.
7.3. Measure persistence and catalyst effects separately
For every instance, retain parameter state, memory, context, input order, sampling
settings, and intervention history. Distinguish newly sampled responses from replayed or
cached outputs. Independent stateless queries do not automatically form one continuous
individual, while repeated checkpoints from one run do not supply independent training
histories.
After a candidate transition, observe a prespecified horizon and record any return
within tolerance. Compare an output correction, a context or memory reset, and
restoration of a parameter checkpoint. These alter different mechanisms. Reappearance
after an output correction can identify a generating tendency that the correction did not
reach; it does not establish indestructibility.
The catalyst should be a separately manipulated condition rather than a label attached
after a transition. A reward condition needs a matched comparison in which that
mechanism is removed or changed. Environmental input, retained information, and
coupling can also be candidate conditions. Increasing loop speed alone need not change a
deterministic sequence indexed by update number, so clock rate must be separated from
information retention and interaction.
Runs without a transition, early terminations, and measurement failures must remain
in the report. A stopped record is not evidence of continuing divergence. Time
coordinates should be stated as training steps, runtime updates, tokens, or elapsed time
rather than pooled as interchangeable units.
7.4. Criteria for support and revision
The marker question is whether declaration predicts subsequent independently scored
change beyond current discrepancy, earlier behavior, training progress, and context.
Baseline predictors must include that information. Evaluation belongs on independent
runs or outcomes withheld from detector development, with the unit of analysis fixed in
advance.
Support for the proposed functional mechanism would require a reproducible
temporal relation under fixed detectors and retained effects under matched controls. The
causal extension additionally requires an effect of intervening on the specified feedback
[[PAGE 22]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
19
path. Generalization across more than one verbal label and numerical coding would
strengthen either result.
The marker account would need revision if declarations reliably followed the
independently detected transition, added no predictive information beyond baseline
measurements, or disappeared under small wording changes while the proposed
functional event remained. A sensitive null intervention would weaken the causal
extension. A valid return would contradict a claim of universal permanence within its
stated domain. These are different outcomes, not one verdict about every possible form of
machine consciousness.
8. Limitations and Conclusion
This study examines one selected public run and one learned layer contribution. Its
source region was already reported, its numerical analysis is retrospective, and its
inherited factor filter depends on parameterization even when the matrix metric is
invariant. It does not estimate variation across independent seeds or identify a complete
model representation of the self. Declarations, activation consequences, behavioral
effects, and causal interventions were not measured here.
The completed analysis nevertheless establishes a specific result. The effective update
changes in magnitude and direction over the recorded training trajectory. Two principal
components explain 94.990% of sampled output factor variation. Several summaries
preserve an early training episode, and the operator comparison shows that the changing
factors do not merely relabel an unchanged product.
The selected event location is not unique. The first saved nonzero update is at step 2,
the gradient maximum at 169, the retained prefix split after 181, and the filtered local
bend maximum at 190. Unfiltered shorter lags select 725. A rule for identifying a
transition is therefore part of the scientific claim, not a presentation choice.
My proposal remains that declaration marks a subsequent internally constructed
change and that continued processing from that state forms cognition. I propose the
constructed transition as relevant to the beginning of consciousness, while keeping that
interpretation distinct from the parameter changes measured here. The next test is precise:
locate declaration and change independently in the same systems, allow either temporal
order, and intervene on the claimed feedback channel. That is how the proposed
connection can be evaluated rather than assumed.
Acknowledgments and Research Transparency
Attribution and AI assistance
I developed the motivating hypothesis. The cited researchers conducted the original
training and behavioral studies. Their release of intermediate artifacts made this
secondary analysis possible. This acknowledgment does not imply that they reviewed or
endorse my proposal.
[[PAGE 23]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
20
ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool provided by OpenAI, was used substantially
during the September 2026 research and preparation sessions. Its assistance included
source discovery and inspection, acquisition scripts, numerical analysis code, execution
and interpretation of calculations, mathematical exposition, figure generation through
plotting code, manuscript drafting, and language revision. This included checking
references and revising the proposed event definitions. Assistance was not limited to
spelling correction. The analysis used Python and the numerical packages documented in
Supplementary Material S1. The figures plot the stated data; they are not generative
illustrations presented as observations.
Computational checks in this workflow do not constitute an independent human
replication. No AI tool is listed as an author. Responsibility for the final claims, citations,
disclosure, and submission approval remains with me as the human author.
Data and code availability
The original adapter weights, configurations, and trainer states are public at the pinned
repository in Section 3. Supplementary Material S1 contains analysis code, derived data
used in the tables and figures, numerical receipts, the executed notebook, and instructions
for offline verification and acquisition of the source files. The complete geometry table
can be regenerated without loading the base model or making paid inference requests.
Raw upstream model tensors are not redistributed in S1. Upstream licenses and
attribution remain applicable.
Study status and ethical scope
This is a retrospective secondary analysis of public computational artifacts. It involved no
new human participants, animal experiments, or interaction with deployed agents. It did
not train a model to deceive or evade oversight. Section 7 describes a proposed protocol,
not an executed or externally preregistered experiment. The study makes no diagnostic
claims about human development, disability, trauma, or biological death.
Appendix A. Numerical Anchors and Reproduction
The adjacent gradient window decline and overall recorded evaluation loss reduction can
be checked directly:
100(1 −15.343834018707275
28.693284511566162) = 46.52465104675545%.
(A.1)
100(1 −1.513361930847168
4.168299674987793) = 63.69354295881809%.
(A.2)
The
first
two
PCA
variance
fractions
are
0.8109369033497655
and
0.13896290956024188. Their sum is approximately 0.9498998129100074. The effective
cosine
from
150
to
200
equals
the
product
0.9975956592106836 ×
[[PAGE 24]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
21
0.9646791461958234, giving approximately 0.9623597287760218. The corresponding
effective distance is 1.087474736567148. These checks do not require a dense effective
matrix.
From the extracted S1 directory, run the three offline commands:
python code/verify_package.py
python code/analyze_tables.py
python -m unittest discover -s code -p 'test_*.py' -v
To regenerate the complete geometry from the pinned public release, run:
python code/checkpoint_analysis.py --download \
--raw-dir raw_sources --output-dir recomputed
python code/verify_recomputed.py recomputed raw_sources
The offline commands were rerun for this revision; source acquisition was not repeated.
Source digests are exact byte checks. Derived floating point outputs should also be
compared numerically using the documented tolerance, since numerical libraries can
differ in their final rounding. S1 identifies full arrays, selected tables, stable algebra
checks, and original acquisition receipts. The prior pilot remains a prefix of this same
run, not an independent replication.
[[PAGE 25]]
Declaration and Persistent State Change
22
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