From self-organizing systems to subjective temporal extension

TL;DR

This paper formalizes the emergence of subjective temporal extension from self-organizing systems using the free energy principle and active inference, explaining various altered states of time perception through a unified computational model.

Contribution

It introduces a novel information-geometric formalization of subjective time based on self-simulation and active inference, linking physics, cognition, and altered time experiences.

Findings

Emergence of intentional binding effect in simulations

Altered subjective time in meditative states modeled computationally

Unified explanation for diverse temporal perception phenomena

Abstract

The self-simulational theory of temporal extension describes an information-theoretically formalized mechanism by which the width of subjective temporality emerges from the architecture of self-modelling. In this paper, the perspective of the free energy principle will be assumed to cast the emergence of subjective temporal extension from first principles of the physics of self-organization and to formalize subjective temporal extension using information geometry. Using active inference, a deep parametric generative model of temporal inference is simulated, which realizes the described dynamics on a computational level. Two variations of time-perception naturally emerge from the simulated computational model. This concerns the intentional binding effect (i.e., the compression of the temporal interval between voluntarily initiated actions and subsequent sensory consequences) and empirically documented alterations of subjective time experience in deep states of meditative absorption (i.e., in minimal phenomenal experience). Generally, numerous systematic and domain-specific alterations of subjective temporal experience are computationally explained in a unified manner, as enabled by integration with current active inference accounts mapping onto the respective domains. This concerns, next to attentional and central tendency effects, the temporality-modulating role of valence, impulsivity, boredom, flow-states, near death-experiences, and various psychopathologies, amongst others. The self-simulational theory of temporal extension, from the perspective of the free energy principle, explains how the width of the subjective temporal moment emerges and varies from first principles, accounting for why sometimes, subjective time seems to fly, and sometimes, moments feel like eternities; with the computational mechanism being readily deployable synthetically.