Complete Phase IV artificial beings (SOUL-WP-0005)

Map agent architectures, memory/persistence mechanisms, and approximate-Being
catalog onto Soul Frame vocabulary. Write phase-iv synthesis, strengthen H9 on
the Agent/APE side, finish SOUL-WP-0005, and mark SOUL-WP-0006 ready.

research/phase-iv-artificial-beings-synthesis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+# Phase IV Artificial Beings — Synthesis
+
+**Workplan:** SOUL-WP-0005  
+**Date:** 2026-08-12  
+**Status:** complete for Phase IV gate  
+**Bodies:**
+`research/ai-agents/agent-architecture-crosswalk.md`,
+`research/ai-agents/persistence-and-memory.md`,
+`research/ai-agents/approximate-beings-catalog.md`,
+`research/artificial-persons/digital-persons-and-companions.md`
+
+---
+
+## 1. Purpose
+
+Map Soul Frame onto contemporary artificial systems — LLM/tool agents, generative
+agents, companions, digital humans, memory and identity architectures — so later
+Spirit/Ghost work reuses a stable agent/Being vocabulary.
+
+---
+
+## 2. What holds
+
+1. **Most deployed “agents” are Functional Agents or APEs**, not Beings.
+   Believable personhood is ahead of constitutive Beinghood (RN-001 Finding 12).
+
+2. **Generative Agents (Park et al.)** are the clearest public **proto-Being**
+   architecture: memory + reflection + planning + social behavior — still
+   **heteronomous** (lifecycle owned by the harness).
+
+3. **Actor / Persona / Identity collapse** is the dominant product category error.
+   Model ≠ Being; prompt ≠ identity; account ≠ continuity.
+
+4. **Memory ≠ continuity.** Memory becomes continuity-relevant only when
+   attributable, action-guiding, autobiographically integrated, provenance-protected,
+   and coupled to ongoing organization (or an explicit Continuity Bridge).
+
+5. **Three axes still classify better than one score:**  
+   Autonomy (A) · Personhood (B) · Recognition (C).  
+   Companions maximize B+C; daemons maximize A; chatbots maximize B with low A.
+
+6. **Emerging identity-layer research** (Qin et al.; Otsuka et al.; mutability/
+   versioning work) converges with Soul Frame **Actor ≠ Being** and governed
+   continuity — engineering uptake of Phase I philosophy.
+
+7. **Agent, Spirit, Ghost remain provenance/construction descriptors** layered
+   *on* the Being stack, not substitutes for it (H9 foreshadowing Phase V).
+
+---
+
+## 3. Vocabulary ready for Phase V
+
+| Term | Use for artificial systems |
+|---|---|
+| Functional Agent | task/role-derived component or system |
+| APE | exposes personhood dimensions by design |
+| Proto-Being | persistent individuating apparatus without full Beinghood |
+| Candidate Being | axes + continuity strong enough for serious Being claims |
+| Heteronomous individual | persistence/self maintained largely from outside |
+| Continuity Bridge | dormant/snapshot path for later resumption |
+| Identity commitment | governed structure for allowed transformations |
+
+---
+
+## 4. Catalog takeaway
+
+From `approximate-beings-catalog.md`:
+
+- Stateless chat → APE  
+- Park-style generative agents → proto-Being  
+- Companions → strong APE / candidate Being  
+- Control planes → autonomous ≠ Being  
+- Swarms under one name → TE-05 multi-level profiles  
+- Mature Gh./Sp. → Phase V (authority vs public reflection)
+
+---
+
+## 5. Open technical questions (carry forward)
+
+| ID | Question |
+|---|---|
+| OQ-MEM-01–06 | Memory partition, edit, upgrade, fork, reflection loss, custody |
+| | When does vendor-hosted companion memory ground constitutive continuity? |
+| | Minimal identity layer for Actor swaps without USURPED topology |
+| | Evaluation harnesses for P-profile vs mere fluency |
+
+Also folded into `OpenQuestions.md`.
+
+---
+
+## 6. Unblock for SOUL-WP-0006
+
+Spirits and Ghosts research may assume:
+
+- agent architecture crosswalk language,
+- APE/proto-Being/candidate Being distinctions,
+- memory ≠ continuity rule,
+- Actor≠Being and identity-layer precedents,
+- companion/digital-human as high-B/C systems without automatic Gh./Sp. status.
+
+## 7. Compact Phase IV thesis
+
+> **Contemporary AI agents prove that person-like behavior and even persistent
+> social simulacra can be built long before artificial Beinghood is solved. The
+> missing pieces are rarely more fluency — they are individuating continuity,
+> provenance-governed memory, and honest separation of Actor, Persona, and Being.**