The simplest public description of Omega says it works with working, episodic, semantic and procedural memory. That is useful, but it is not the whole archaeology.
The v2 archive records an important correction: an earlier Self Memory formulation should not be silently overwritten by the later procedural-memory framing. The shift is part of the research history.
01 – The Earlier Shape
The earlier memory taxonomy included:
- working memory;
- episodic memory;
- semantic memory;
- self memory.
Self Memory matters because Omega is not only trying to store facts or procedures. It is trying to preserve a continuity of identity: what the system believes about itself, its own prior states, its commitments, its habits and its recent trajectory.
That is not quite the same thing as procedural memory.
02 – The Later Shape
The later public summary uses:
- working memory;
- episodic memory;
- semantic memory;
- procedural memory.
Procedural memory is still valuable. A cognitive system needs routines, learned policies and ways of doing recurring tasks. But replacing Self Memory with Procedural Memory changes the story if it is presented as a clean upgrade.
The more honest version is that the taxonomy is being worked through.
03 – Mental Objects
Omega is better described in terms of mental objects competing for attention than scheduled model calls.
A mental object can be a goal, observation, recalled memory, hypothesis, user message, prediction error, plan, tool result or internally generated thought. The system's job is not merely to decide which timer fires next. It is to decide what deserves to occupy working memory.
This is the difference between:
- "run a thinking model every ten seconds"; and
- "when the system is idle, cognition resumes around whatever is salient."
The second version is closer to the Lab's actual target.
04 – Attention Over Scheduling
Scheduling is still needed at the engineering layer. Machines need loops, queues and execution control. But Omega's public explanation should avoid making the scheduler sound like the mind.
The cognitive model is:
- mental objects enter or leave working memory;
- activation spreads through associations;
- relevance, novelty, goals and confidence affect salience;
- weak candidates decay;
- stronger candidates compete for attention;
- selected objects guide reasoning, speech or action.
That is why "What currently occupies my mind?" is a better description than "What is in the context window?"
05 – Current Belief
The memory taxonomy should remain open in the Lab. Working, episodic, semantic and procedural memory are useful categories, but Self Memory should be preserved as a historical and possibly continuing concern.
If Omega is meant to have continuity, it needs some account of self-state. Whether that becomes its own memory class, a layer across all memory, or a set of high-priority mental objects is still a research question.
Source note: assembled from the v2 archaeological-pass correction on memory taxonomy and the recovered notes on mental objects and attention-over-scheduling.