Perceptual Metacognition, Memory, and Machine Self-Consciousness

Explore a 26-minute conference talk from the Models of Consciousness Conferences examining the computational realizability of self-consciousness through the lens of computational functionalism and interpretive sensory-access theory. Delve into the distinction between two types of self-consciousness - personal ownership and introspection - and discover how they may be rooted in perceptual metacognitive processes while being differentiated by mnemonic contents. Learn about the perceptual reality monitoring (PRM) theory and how it attributes perceptual awareness subjectiveness to memories retrieved through source monitoring and represented via medial prefrontal centered networks. Understand the role of ventromedial PFC in evaluating self-importance of perceptual contents and guiding conceptual autobiographical retrieval in decision-making, potentially implementable through predictive world-modeling architectures. Examine how self-referential processes may be part of implicit perceptual metacognitive mechanisms responsible for assessing familiarities in perceptual awareness underlying personal ownership, while explicit processing with episodic contents enables introspective access to self-knowledge.