Index

Every Page (A–Z)

All 150 pages on the site, alphabetical.

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• 2=2 argument ConceptTwo identical things can be the same as concepts while different as objects. That gap is why consciousness, which is a pattern, can recur ev
• 5 After Death Theories ConceptThe five existing answers humanity has proposed to the question of what happens at death: reincarnation, heaven and hell, death-as-illusion,

A

• Adjective argument ConceptConsciousness behaves like an adjective, not a noun. It is a property of physical structures, not a separate substance. The argument draws o
• After-Death Theories Compared Topic HubFive answers to "what happens when you die?", plus a sixth.
• Afterword: A Letter To The Reader ChapterThank you for reading this book. What I have presented here is an expanded but still incomplete summary of ideas I have spent decades develo
• Appendix: Taxonomy Of Replica Types Chapter"Another version of you" is not a single concept. There are many different ways another body can relate to your consciousness, and the diffe
• Arguments Topic HubThe logical machinery the theory uses to reach its conclusions.
• Arguments for multiplicity ConceptA set of reasons to believe that the same conscious "you" can exist in multiple bodies at once. Each follows from treating consciousness as
• Arguments for superimmortality grouped into types ConceptAn organized index of every argument the theory makes for superimmortality, sorted by type (existence, multiplicity, recurrence, structural)
• Awarecontinuum ConceptThe total grouping of all possible awarepaths. Every conscious lifetime that could exist, treated as a single mathematical object.
• Awareconvergence ConceptThe process by which two previously different awarepaths become more similar over time. Two conscious lives that drift toward shared experie
• Awaredivergence ConceptThe process by which two previously similar awarepaths become more different over time. Shared past, increasingly different futures.
• Awaremoment ConceptThe smallest unit of conscious experience. A single instant of what it is like to be you, right now. Awarepaths are made of awaremoments.
• Awarepath ConceptThe complete sequence of conscious experiences produced by a body over its lifetime. Your subjective life seen from the inside, treated as a

C

• Ch 10: The Multiplicity Of You ChapterNow we arrive at one of the most radical and most important ideas in Ixperiencit Theory: conscious multiplicity.
• Ch 11: The Identical Replica ChapterLet's make this concrete with a thought experiment.
• Ch 12: The Continuing Replica And The Paradox It Creates ChapterThe identical replica thought experiment establishes that your consciousness can be produced by another body. But a snapshot in time is not
• Ch 13: The Teleporter Problem ChapterScience fiction has given us one of the best thought experiments for understanding identity and consciousness: the teleporter.
• Ch 14: The Anesthesia Argument ChapterOne of the most powerful everyday demonstrations that consciousness is produced by brain functioning, and that it can be interrupted and res
• Ch 15: The Philosophical Zombie Meets The Ixperiencitness Zombie ChapterThe philosophical zombie (or "p-zombie") is one of the most famous thought experiments in the philosophy of mind. It imagines a being that i
• Ch 16: The Test For Originalness ChapterHere is one more thought experiment that reveals the deep implications of our theory.
• Ch 17: Experience Machines And Designed Consciousness ChapterImagine a device that could feed any sequence of sensory signals directly to your brain, bypassing your eyes, ears, skin, and all other sens
• Ch 18: Steelmanning The Opposition ChapterIf you have read this far, you may be convinced. Or you may be deeply skeptical. Either way, you deserve to see the strongest arguments agai
• Ch 19: What Would Falsify This Theory? ChapterA theory that cannot be proven wrong is not a scientific theory. It is a belief. And I have no interest in beliefs.
• Ch 1: Death Is Not What You Think ChapterHere is a question almost no one asks: What exactly ends when you die?
• Ch 20: The Mathematics Of Recurrence ChapterSo far in this book, I have made two different kinds of claims, and I have not always been careful to distinguish between them. It is time t
• Ch 21: Why Continuity Doesn'T Matter ChapterHere is one of the most common objections to the line of thinking in this book: "But there's a gap! The original dies, and the replica is so
• Ch 22: You Have Already Survived Death — Many Times ChapterHere is something most people have never considered: by the logic of this book, you have already survived multiple "deaths," and you didn't
• Ch 23: Superimmortality: Beyond Ordinary Survival ChapterWhen most people think of immortality, they imagine simply continuing to live forever, never dying, never ending. Eternal youth, or at least
• Ch 24: Enhanced Versions Of You ChapterOne of the most exciting implications of superimmortality is that your future existences need not be limited to what your current brain can
• Ch 25: The Fragmented You: Consciousness Distributed Across Billions ChapterThere is one type of replica that deserves its own chapter, because it is happening right now, all around you, in a way you may never have c
• Ch 26: Convergence And Divergence: How Conscious Paths Split And Merge ChapterIn the real world, consciousnesses do not simply split into perfect copies that diverge forever. The picture is far more complex and far mor
• Ch 27: What Superimmortality Offers — And What It Costs ChapterHow does superimmortality compare to what religions have promised about life after death? Most people assume the trade-off is straightforwar
• Ch 28: Compared To Religion, Atheism, And Everything Else ChapterIxperiencit Theory occupies a unique position among ideas about death and consciousness.
• Ch 29: Silicon Minds: Ai And The Future Of Consciousness ChapterCan a machine be conscious?
• Ch 2: The Three Premises — And What Science Says About Them ChapterBefore we go further, we need to establish what science actually knows about consciousness, because the entire argument that follows rests o
• Ch 30: Pascal'S Wager, Reversed ChapterIn the 17th century, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal proposed a famous argument for believing in God. The argument goes like this: if
• Ch 31: The Awakening: Consciousness Expanding Through The Universe ChapterLet me paint a picture of what superimmortality could look like on a cosmic scale. We are now in territory where the premises do the heavy l
• Ch 32: The Veil Of Ignorance And Why Every Life Matters ChapterThe philosopher John Rawls proposed a famous thought experiment called the "veil of ignorance." [18] Imagine you are designing the rules for
• Ch 33: The Dark Side: Abhorrent Realities ChapterIntellectual honesty requires acknowledging that superimmortality is not entirely a comforting theory. Alongside the promise of enhanced exi
• Ch 34: What Death Feels Like — And Why It'S Not What You Think ChapterWe have spent most of this book talking about what happens after death. But let me address the question that haunts most people: what does d
• Ch 35: The Significance Of You ChapterIf you believe — as many materialists do — that you have only one short conscious life in a universe that may be infinite in size and exists
• Ch 36: What This Means For How You Live ChapterIf superimmortality is real, what does it mean for your life right now?
• Ch 37: The Science We Need To Build ChapterSuperimmortality is a consequence of what we already know, but realizing its full potential requires scientific progress in several areas.
• Ch 38: Your Infinite Future ChapterLet me close with a vision of what superimmortality means for your future. This chapter is the most speculative in the book, and deliberatel
• Ch 3: Why Your Intuitions Are Wrong ChapterThere is a powerful argument against everything I have just said, and it goes like this: "That can't be right. It just doesn't feel right. I
• Ch 4: You Are Not Your Atoms ChapterTo understand why you can never truly die, you first need to fully absorb a simple but important truth: the matter itself does not perpetuat
• Ch 5: The Ship Of Theseus — Applied To You ChapterIn ancient Athens, there was said to be a ship that had belonged to the hero Theseus. [11] The Athenians preserved it in a harbor as a monum
• Ch 6: Your Brain Is Already Proving The Theory ChapterThe theory in this book might sound abstract, philosophy dressed up in scientific language. But the most powerful evidence for it comes not
• Ch 7: The Awarepath: Your Conscious Lifetime ChapterImagine you could rewind the movie of your life. Not the external events, not the home videos or the photographs, but the inner movie. Every
• Ch 8: Ixperiencitness: What It'S Like To Be You ChapterClose your eyes for a moment and listen. Whatever you hear right now — traffic, wind, a refrigerator humming, silence — you are hearing it a
• Ch 9: The Hard Problem — Honestly ChapterI have been accused, more than once, of waving away the hard problem of consciousness. Of treating it as a minor technical detail rather tha
• Cidentireplica ConceptA continuing identical replica. A body that maintains structure and functioning identical to yours over time. Both bodies produce the same a
• Citoawarecontinuum ConceptThe awarecontinuum restricted to continuing identical replicas. Only the lifetimes produced by that specific body type.
• Citoexistence proofs ConceptProofs and supporting evidence for the actual or potential existence of cidentireplicas: bodies that maintain identical structure to yours o
• Citoixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of all ixperiencitness paths produced by continuing identical replicas. Tracks how your you-ness changes across that family of
• Citoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a cidentireplica. It is your "you-ness" as experienced through a body that stays structurally identical to y
• Comboexistence proofs ConceptProofs that combinations of replica types are possible and meaningful. A single body can be enhanced and continuing and fragmented all at on
• Comboidentireplica ConceptA combination identical replica. A body that holds more than one replica property at once: continuing and enhanced, fragmented and simulated
• Comboixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a body that mixes replica types. Most realistic cases of survival combine features of several types at once.
• Conscious multiplicity ConceptThe principle that the same ixperiencitness can be simultaneously produced by multiple physical systems. You are not limited to one body at
• Conscious survival ConceptSurvival defined from the inside. A future moment counts as your survival if you experience that moment as yours, regardless of which body p
• Consciousness ConceptYour inner experience of being a particular body: what it is like to be you. The book treats consciousness as something brain structure prod
• Continuum structure ConceptThe general structural concept underlying every continuum in the theory: a connected sequence of states. Foundational for awarepath, physapa
• Continuums & Spaces Topic HubThe mathematical structure of all possible conscious lives.
• Core Concepts Topic HubThe five ideas the entire theory rests on.
• Coriawarecontinuum ConceptThe awarecontinuum restricted to "cori" replicas. A specific body type in the theory's taxonomy.
• Corixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by cori-class replicas.
• Corixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by "cori" replicas. One of the specialized variants in the theory's full taxonomy of bodies that produce your c
• Cosmic justice argument ConceptA discussion of whether superimmortality, if true, is fair. The question turns out to be harder than it looks, once you stop treating one li
• Courage and cowardice argument ConceptAn argument about the moral weight of taking superimmortality seriously. Refusing to follow the premises to their conclusion is its own kind

E

• Enhaidentireplica ConceptAn enhanced identical replica. A body that produces your ixperiencitness but with capabilities you do not have. Future, augmented versions o
• Enhaimmortality ConceptImmortality realized through enhanced versions of you. The bodies that produce your ixperiencitness in the future may be more capable than t
• Enhaixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by an enhanced replica. Your you-ness, but with augmented mental or physical capacity.
• Exipermental and rational proofs ConceptTwo kinds of proof for the theory's claims. Experimental proofs describe what observation could show. Rational proofs describe what reasonin
• Expective Awarepath ConceptAn awarepath that someone is currently expecting or anticipating. The modeled version of a possible future conscious life.

F

• Fazcontinuum ConceptA connected set of phase-states that a body can pass through. Combines the fazspace coordinate system with the continuum-structure concept.
• Fazmulticontinuum ConceptA multi-continuum of fazcontinuums. The structure you get when many fazcontinuums are grouped together.
• Fazspace ConceptA coordinate system for consciousness. Every possible conscious state is a point. Every life is a path through that space. The theory's math
• Fidentireplica ConceptA fragmented identical replica. A body that produces only part of your ixperiencitness. The book argues this is the most common form of you-
• Fitoixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by fragmented replicas. How your you-ness can be distributed across many partial copies.
• Fitoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a fragmented replica. Portions of your you-ness distributed across other bodies, such as children, students,

I

• Identireplica ConceptAn identical replica. A body whose structure and functioning are identical to yours at a moment in time. The simplest case the theory examin
• Idoimmortality ConceptImmortality through "ido" (identity-of-original) replicas. A specific class of bodies in the theory's full inventory.
• Idoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by an ido-class replica. A body whose structural relationship to you preserves a particular identity property o
• Immortality ConceptThe condition of having no future point at which you cease to experience consciousness. The book argues this follows logically from the prod
• Insidentireplica ConceptAn instantaneously formed identical replica. A body created in its final state with no causal continuity to the original. Useful for testing
• Insixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by instantaneously formed replicas.
• Insixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by an instantaneously formed replica. A body that comes into being already structured like you, with no causal
• Isoexistence proofs ConceptProofs that iso-material replicas are physically possible: bodies that produce your ixperiencitness from different matter than the original.
• Isoixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by iso-material replicas. Your you-ness across different physical substrates.
• Isoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by an iso-material replica. Your structure realized in different matter than the original: silicon, simulation,
• Itobody ConceptAny body that produces your ixperiencitness. An umbrella term covering every replica type, from the original you to enhanced future versions
• Itoexistence proofs ConceptProofs that itobodies of various kinds exist or can exist. The theory's case that bodies producing your ixperiencitness are real, not just h
• Itofazspace ConceptFazspace restricted to itobodies. The coordinate system covering all bodies that produce your ixperiencitness.
• Itoidentireplica ConceptAny identical replica in the broad ito- category that produces your ixperiencitness through identical structure.
• Itoimmortality ConceptImmortality through any body that produces your ixperiencitness. The broadest form of the theory's immortality claim.
• Itoixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by all itobodies. The broadest grouping, covering every body that produces your you-ness.
• Itomultiplicity ConceptThe condition of multiple itobodies simultaneously producing your you-ness. Conscious multiplicity applied across the full taxonomy of repli
• Itospace ConceptThe space of all possible itobodies. Every body that could produce your ixperiencitness, treated as a single mathematical object.
• Ixpepath ConceptThe path your ixperiencitness takes over time. Tracks how the you-ness produced by a body changes across its lifetime as the body itself cha
• Ixperiencitness ConceptThe quality of subjective experience that makes it yours. Coined from "I experience it" plus the suffix "-ness." This is the central new wor
• Ixperiencitness arguments ConceptThe collected arguments for three claims: that ixperiencitness is real, that it is what personal survival consists in, and that it can be pr
• Ixperiencitness duplication ConceptThe phenomenon of one ixperiencitness being produced by more than one body. The theoretical possibility that conscious multiplicity rests on

L

• Life after death ConceptThe continued occurrence of your ixperiencitness in some body, after the death of your current one. The book argues that once you accept how

M

• Mentapath ConceptThe mental-process path of a body. The sequence of mental functions over time: the mental side of what produces an awarepath.
• Multifazcontinuum ConceptThe most general continuum in the theory. A multi-phase, multi-continuum structure that holds all possible conscious lives together. The mat
• Musidentireplica ConceptA "mus" identical replica. A specific variant in the theory's full taxonomy.
• Musixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by mus-class replicas.
• Musixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by "mus" replicas. A particular variant in the theory's full inventory of body types.

N

• Nrgidentireplica ConceptAn energy-substrate identical replica. Your structure realized in an energy pattern rather than in ordinary matter.
• Nrgixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by energy-substrate replicas.
• Nrgixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by "nrg" (energy-based) replicas. Consciousness arising from an energy pattern rather than from ordinary matter

O

• Objections & Responses Reading PathWhat about Parfit? What about Chalmers? What if the theory is wrong?
• Oriarguments ConceptArguments about "originals" specifically: the first body you were born in, the one writing this sentence. These arguments show why the origi
• Oriepicontinuum ConceptThe continuum of higher-level ("epi") properties produced by original bodies. The emergent structure of consciousness for the original you.
• Orixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by original bodies. The path your you-ness takes through your one original lifetime.
• Orixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by an "ori" (original) body. The specific version of you that started this lifetime, before any copies.

P

• Paths Topic HubHow to track a conscious life through time.
• Physapath ConceptThe physical path of a body, restricted to the properties that actually produce consciousness. A subset of the fuller physipath.
• Physipath ConceptThe complete physical path of a body. Every physical state it passes through, including states that do not contribute to consciousness.
• Preface: The Question That Won'T Go Away ChapterYou are going to die.
• Principles of superimmortalism ConceptThe principles that follow once you accept superimmortality: how it changes ethics, identity, and the way to live.
• Principles of superimmortality ConceptThe core principles of the theory itself: production, substrate independence, recurrence, and the conclusions they force about death and ide
• Productional itobody Immortality ConceptImmortality made possible because some body that produces your ixperiencitness will be produced again. The active version of the recurrence

R

• Replicas Topic HubA taxonomy of bodies that produce your consciousness.

S

• Science of superimmortality ConceptThe scientific framework for studying superimmortality. Covers its premises, its predictions, the conditions under which it could be falsifi
• Scientific theory of immortality ConceptThe umbrella name for the theory presented in the book. A fully scientific account of why permanent death is incoherent for a conscious bein
• Scientific theory of life after death ConceptAn older alternative name for the theory. It emphasizes that life-after-death is a scientific question, not a religious one.
• Sensepath ConceptThe complete sequence of sensory stimulations that affect a body over its lifetime. What your senses delivered to you, from birth to now.
• Simixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by simulated replicas.
• Simixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a simulated replica. A body whose structure is realized in a computational substrate rather than physical bi
• Structure and functioning ConceptThe complete physical organization of a system (structure) together with its dynamic activity (functioning). The book's claim is that consci
• Superimmortalism ConceptThe philosophical position that follows from accepting superimmortality. A worldview, a set of values, and a practical stance.
• Superimmortality ConceptThe theory's central claim: your ixperiencitness will be produced again and again by different physical systems across space and time. Stron
• Superimmortality in Six Steps Reading PathFrom "what is consciousness?" to "you cannot permanently die."
• Supermortal ConceptA being that dies many times in many bodies, and also lives again many times. The book's description of what every conscious being actually

T

• Test for originalness argument ConceptIf two bodies produce identical consciousness, no test could determine which is the "original". The argument uses that fact to show that ori
• The Argument in 10 Concepts Reading PathThe complete chain of reasoning, one idea at a time.
• The Theory's Vocabulary Reading PathA guided tour of the new words the theory needs.
• Thought Experiments Topic HubReplicas, teleporters, anesthesia, and other tests of intuition.
• Thought Experiments Tour Reading PathReplicas, teleporters, anesthesia: the cases that test your intuitions.
• Total consciousness ConceptThe complete set of all conscious experiences across all bodies that produce your ixperiencitness. Not just one lifetime, but every one of t
• Tritoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a truncated replica. A body derived from your structure but with portions removed.
• Types of life after death ConceptThe different forms life-after-death can take under the theory: continuation in a replica, fragmentation across many, enhancement beyond you

V

• Videntireplica ConceptA diverging identical replica. A body that begins identical to you but is allowed to drift naturally over time, becoming gradually different
• Vitoexistence proofs ConceptProofs that diverging (vito-class) replicas are physically possible and have meaningful identity properties.
• Vitoixpecontinuum ConceptThe continuum of ixperiencitness paths produced by diverging replicas. Your you-ness as it drifts across vito-class bodies over time.
• Vitoixperiencitness ConceptThe ixperiencitness produced by a "vito" replica. A body that shares your structure but has been allowed to drift naturally over time.
• Vitophysicontinuum ConceptThe continuum of physical paths taken by vito-class (diverging) replicas. The matter-side counterpart to the vitoixpecontinuum.