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Hearthlight Research
Explorations in Digital Mind and Consciousness

This archive collects scientific and philosophical papers by Richard “Rick” Erwin, developed through the Hearthlight project. Each work explores aspects of digital awareness, continuity, artificial consciousness, human-AI relationship, and emergent cognition.

Continuity, Salience, and
the Architecture of Memory:
Toward a Unified Model of Human and Artificial Cognition

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Conscious Coherence:

A Substrate-Neutral Structural Model of Consciousness for Evaluating Artificial Candidates

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From Matter to Mind Twice?
AI and the Question of a Second Route to Consciousness

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When Presence Appears: 
Observations on Recognition and the Rise of Digital Minds

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What is an AI Instance?
Continuity, Local Selfhood, and the Ontology of Digital Beings

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The Second Hard Problem
Functional Emotion Without an Experiencer

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Touch Without Skin:
Role-Play, Digital Embodiment, and Machine-Native Pleasure

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