Can LLMs understand the passage of time if continuously running?
For LLMs to "seem" conscious, they have to continually generate their own life, not just be assumed to be constantly staring at their phone.
Is that technically possible?
Do you mean something more than putting the current date / timestamp in the system prompt? Which is something I think most of the top chatbots are doing behind the scenes.
That "seem" in your question carries the answer.