Death Is a Feature: Synthetic Immortality, the Retention Question, and the Governance of Simulated Minds
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Simulated Minds Series, Paper II of IV. This paper defends a conditional claim: if we inhabit a high-fidelity simulation and consciousness is substrate-neutral, then subjectively continuous survival beyond biological death, which I term synthetic immortality, cannot be ruled out. I do not argue that it is probable; the practical force rests instead on a dual track, since the sameanalysis applies, without any simulation assumption, to the digital-mind systems human institutions are already building. I introduce the Retention Question (conditional on simulation, are minds retained beyond their terminal events, and under what policy?), the SCALR-ψ model (a factorization of the credence in simulator-mediated retention, weighted by a scalar measure of psychological continuity), and a functional taxonomy of the Five Offices of a retention-capable simulation (Architect, Operator, Moderator, Archivist, Custodian). Present governance obligations arise independently of the simulation hypothesis, while credence in simulation-level retention supplies an additional, conditional reason for attention. In any engineered world, death is a feature: a design choice demanding justification. Companion papers (same series): “Evolution Is Too Slow” (Paper I), “The Immortality Question” (Paper III), “Evolution Is Engineered” (Paper IV).
Author: Van der Veen, Stuart
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7170162490
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