Reference
Glossary of Key Terms
The vocabulary of You Never Die. Terms with concept pages link to fuller discussions.
- Awarepath
- The complete sequence of conscious experiences produced by a body over its lifetime; the "movie" of your conscious life as seen from the inside.
- Awaremoment
- The smallest unit of conscious experience; a single instant of what it is like to be you right now.
- Awarecontinuum
- The total grouping of all possible awarepaths.
- Awareconvergence
- The process by which two or more previously different awarepaths become more similar.
- Awaredivergence
- The process by which two or more previously similar awarepaths become more different.
- Awarepaducer
- A hypothetical device that controls the entire state of a brain-like system (its structure, functioning, and therefore its consciousness) enabling the production of any specific conscious experience.
- Boltzmann Brain
- A hypothetical brain that forms spontaneously from random fluctuations in an otherwise featureless thermal state; a challenge to cosmological claims about consciousness recurrence.
- Causal Continuity
- The philosophical requirement (proposed by Derek Parfit and others) that identity requires an unbroken causal chain between past and present states, not merely physical similarity.
- Cidentireplica
- A continuing identical replica; a body that maintains identical structure and functioning to the original over time, producing an identical awarepath.
- Conscious Multiplicity
- The theory that multiple physical systems can simultaneously produce the same ixperiencitness; the principle that you are not limited to one body at one time.
- Enhaidentireplica
- An enhanced identical replica; a body producing your ixperiencitness but with improved capabilities.
- Fidentireplica
- A fragmented identical replica; a body producing only part of your ixperiencitness. The most common form of ixperiencitness persistence, with fragments distributed across children, students, friends, and cultural inheritors.
- Hard Problem of Consciousness
- The philosophical problem, formulated by David Chalmers, of explaining why physical processes in the brain are accompanied by subjective experience.
- Identireplica (identical replica)
- An identical replica; a body with structure and functioning identical to the original at a moment in time.
- Isoidentireplica
- A replica made of different materials than the original but producing the same ixperiencitness.
- Ixperiencitness
- The quality of subjective experience that makes it your experience; the "you-ness" of your consciousness. Derived from "I experience it" + the suffix "-ness."
- Ixpepath
- The path of ixperiencitness over time; tracks how the ixperiencitness produced by a body changes over its lifetime.
- Measure Problem
- The mathematical challenge of assigning probabilities to events in a potentially infinite space; relevant to calculating the likelihood of consciousness recurrence.
- Neuropath (neural path)
- The neural pathway; the structure and functioning of the brain specifically, tracked over time.
- Physapath (physical path)
- The physical pathway; the complete physical state of the body tracked over time.
- Sensepath
- The complete sequence of sensory stimulations that affect a body over its lifetime.
- Sensepaducer
- A hypothetical device that generates any sequence of sensory stimulations directly to the brain, bypassing the body's natural sense organs.
- Structure and Functioning
- The complete physical organization and dynamic activity of a system; encompasses all physical properties relevant to the system's operation, including arrangement of matter, chemical composition, and temporal dynamics. The key determinant of consciousness.
- Substrate Independence
- The principle that a property (such as consciousness) depends on the organization of matter rather than the specific material; the same recipe produces the same dish regardless of which kitchen it is prepared in.
- Superimmortality
- The recognition that your ixperiencitness will be produced again and again by different physical systems across space and time; immortality that encompasses multiple, enhanced, and varied forms of conscious existence.
- Supermortal
- A being that dies many times in many bodies but also lives again many times; the condition of any conscious being in a universe where consciousness is produced by structure and functioning.
- Videntireplica
- A diverging identical replica; a body that starts with your structure and functioning but is allowed to diverge naturally.