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?