Wouldn't self simulation be emergence? Aka, boot-strapping.

I also have this sense of reality as a variety of lenses, some ourselves, some others and some inbetween, that this element of awarenss shines through, like light through frames of film.

One problem I have with physics models, is they presume this narrative flow of time.

As fauna, our experience is this sequence of perceptions, which seems necessary to intentionally navigate. Then we have narrative based cultures, so that flow, from past to future, defines our reality.

Logically though, change turns future to past. Tomorrow becomes yesterday, because the earth turns.

There is no literal dimension of time, because the past is consumed by the present, to inform and drive it. Causality and conservation of energy. Cause becomes effect.

Which would make time an effect of action, similar to temperature, pressure, color and sound. Frequencies and amplitudes. Time is frequency, events are amplitude.

Safe to say, I get banned from any physics forums I try making this argument, so I'll redirect it toward consciousness and thought. In a slightly roundabout way.

Energy is "conserved," because it is the present, not some dimensionless point between past and future.

So as process, energy goes past to future, while the patterns it generates go future to past.

Think in terms of a wave. The energy drives it, while the fluctuations rise and fall, potential, actual, residual.

Consider a factory, where the product goes start to finish, while the process of production goes the other way, consuming material and expelling product.

As lives go birth to death, while life moves onto the next generation, shedding the old.

Now, consciousness goes past to future, while perceptions, emotions and thoughts come and go, future to past.

Which suggests consciousness exists as a form of energy. Which might explain why it's always seeking out anything to focus on it can, such as tryingt o go to sleep at night, or kids constantly looking for things to get into.

Though as we get older, we become reconciled to the forms.

Though it is the digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems processing the energy, feeding the flame, while the central nervous system sorts the information.

It does seems science has the same problem with consciousness, as with energy, in that it can only be defined in terms of how it's expressed, yet if energy and the information extracted from it are not synonymous......

So in terms of emergence, it would be that feedback loop between this sense of awareness driving it, versus the myriad expressions it inhabits and compels.

The anarchies of desire, versus the tyrannies of judgement.

Is consciousness, like energy, "conserved?"