Citation:

Jackson Andrew Srivathsan, 2025. "Synthetic People: Part I – Context Engineering and the Cognitive Formation of Self in iBrain Architectures", ESP Journal of Engineering & Technology Advancements  5(4): 64-71.

Abstract:

This paper seeks to establish the cognitive and philosophical basis supporting the idea of synthetically created persons. The author posits that the identity of artificial agents depends on the three pillars: continuity (of core data structures and learning weights), memory (episodic, semantic, procedural, affective), and self-recognition (self–other and goal discrimination) which leads to the concept of iBrain as a post-LLM cognitive framework that combines persistent memory, embedded ethical reasoning, self-monitoring, and context engineering. Combining philosophy of identity (Locke, Parfit), cognitive science, and AI systems design, the paper models the emergence of self from the interaction between long-term memory and self-referential processing. Policy ramifications are considered through authentication equivalents such as cryptographic identity and behavioral signatures that eventually result in the suggestion of a secure iBrain Identity Certificate for non-disruptive continuity without the facilitation of a malicious replication. Moreover, the work takes a step further into an architecture ethics concept that mixes deontological, consequentialist, and virtue ethics and advances a feasible account of self-awareness through recursive modeling, state monitoring, and social modeling—arguing load management to be a prerequisite for coherent agency. Lastly, it puts forward a four-layered contextualization taxonomy—sensory, historical, relational, and predictive—as the link connecting perception and judgment. This paper is the first installment of the Synthetic People Trilogy, which deals with the mind and self; Parts II and III cover topics of embodiment, governance, and the post-linguistic civilization to come.

References:

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Keywords:

Synthetic Personhood, Artificial Identity, iBrain, Synthetic People Trilogy, Self-awareness, Cognitive Architecture.