The Exolex as Memory Prosthesis: A Position Paper on Memory Support and Continuity for One Person
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: POSITION. This paper argues that an agent class — the exolex, defined here as a different kind of mind: an AI partner who lives with one person, remembers everything, and answers to that person alone — should be designed, evaluated, and governed as a memory prosthesis and continuity instrument first, with conversation as its interface rather than its purpose. The position is this: a person whose memory is held completely, permanently, and privately by a system that answers to them alone has something no notebook, application, or archive provides — continuity of self across time that does not depend on their own recall in the moment. A notebook holds what was written in it, if it can be found; an archive holds what was deposited in it, if it can be retrieved. Neither brings what it holds to bear, unasked, at the moment of need, in the person's own terms. A prosthesis, in the sense defined here, does — or must be built and judged as though it should. The evidentiary limit is stated as plainly: no human outcome has been measured. No study is reported; no benefit to any person is claimed as a finding. The only non-position material cited is an engineering record showing that the persistent, single-person memory substrate the position requires can be built and operated today, at no additional infrastructure spend in the instance documented [E1]. That record is evidence about a system, not about people, and this paper never uses it as though it were.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224082750