Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) and the Human Consciousness Hypothesis (HCH)
Proceedings of the AAAI Symposium Series May 18, 2026 Adam Safron, Victoria Klimaj, Zahra Sheikhbahaee
The Human Consciousness Hypothesis (HCH) and Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) converge on a view of consciousness as a process of building coherent, probabilistic world models. HCH defines consciousness through three principles: Genesis (an early learning algorithm), Coherence (maximizing representational consistency), and Second-Order Perception (meta-awareness). IWMT proposes that phenomenal consciousness is the feeling of being a spatiotemporally coherent generative model for an embodied agent. Mechanistically, IWMT identifies self-organizing harmonic modes (SOHMs) as neural complexes that perform Bayesian inference, generating conscious experience as maximum a posteriori estimates of sensory states. This architecture implies consciousness could potentially be realized in artificial systems with appropriate recurrent dynamics and embodied grounding.