Complete Phase III personhood (SOUL-WP-0004)

Map descriptive personhood dimensions P1–P12, four kinds of personhood, and Character/Persona/Actor separations. Support H2/H8, judge TE-06, write phase-iii-personhood-synthesis.md, finish SOUL-WP-0004, and mark SOUL-WP-0005 ready.
2026-08-12 01:26:24 +02:00 · 2026-08-12 01:26:24 +02:00 · dcd9f8dba6
commit dcd9f8dba6
parent 25e872ab8e
15 changed files with 722 additions and 76 deletions
--- a/research/phase-iii-personhood-synthesis.md
+++ b/research/phase-iii-personhood-synthesis.md
@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+# Phase III Personhood — Synthesis
+
+**Workplan:** SOUL-WP-0004  
+**Date:** 2026-08-12  
+**Status:** complete for Phase III gate  
+**Primary bodies:**
+`research/personhood/personhood-dimensions-map.md`,
+`research/character-persona/character-persona-performance-map.md`,
+RN-003 personhood axis, RN-004 character/identity constraints
+
+---
+
+## 1. Purpose
+
+Separate **Being, Person(hood), Character, Persona, and Actor**. Map descriptive
+vs social vs moral vs legal personhood without conflation. Stress-test APE vs
+Being and multi-Persona identity (TE-06).
+
+Assumes Phase I–II: layered Beinghood, Social Mind, recognition multi-sense.
+
+---
+
+## 2. What holds
+
+1. **Four kinds of personhood** — descriptive (default), social, moral, legal —
+   must stay distinct. Architecture does not imply rights.
+
+2. **Descriptive personhood is a profile (P1–P12)**, not a binary. Agency alone
+   is not personhood (daemon counterexample).
+
+3. **Three axes** remain indispensable:
+   - A autonomous individuality  
+   - B descriptive personhood  
+   - C social recognition  
+
+4. **H2 supported:** high personhood exposure without Being (APE chatbot); high
+   autonomy without personhood (daemon).
+
+5. **Stack defended with sources:**
+   ```text
+   Being ≠ Character ≠ Persona ≠ Actor
+   ```
+   Character ≠ identity (RN-004). Persona = contextual projection (Goffman/role).
+   Actor = machinery (Phase I H6).
+
+6. **H8 supported:** multiple Personae need not fragment identity when
+   integration holds; TE-06 documents failure modes.
+
+7. **APE remains useful** as conservative construction category for personhood
+   exposure without claiming Being or moral/legal personhood.
+
+---
+
+## 3. What must change / stay disciplined
+
+| Temptation | Discipline |
+|---|---|
+| “It’s a person” after fluent chat | Check axes A/B/C and continuity |
+| Trait vector = Character = Identity | Character is dispositional only |
+| Product persona = Being | Persona is projection |
+| Moral rights from P-scores | Moral personhood is a separate map |
+| Legal personality from Beinghood | Legal map is independent (WS12) |
+
+---
+
+## 4. Evidence on hypotheses
+
+| Hypothesis | Strength | Status |
+|---|---|---|
+| H2 personhood ≠ Beinghood | moderate→strong | supported |
+| H8 Persona projection | moderate | supported |
+
+---
+
+## 5. Compact stack for later phases
+
+```text
+                    BEING
+         autonomy + personhood + address
+              + recognition (someone)
+                      │
+         ┌────────────┼────────────┐
+         │            │            │
+       BODY         MIND         SOUL
+       Action       Model       Relation
+         │            │            │
+         └────────────┼────────────┘
+                      │
+              DESCRIPTIVE PERSONHOOD
+                   (P1–P12 profile)
+                      │
+                  CHARACTER
+              dispositional structure
+                      │
+                   PERSONA
+              situated projection
+                      │
+                    ACTOR
+             technical manifestation
+```
+
+Agent / Spirit / Ghost remain **provenance/construction** descriptors that
+shape how Character and Persona are sourced — not replacements for this stack
+(Phase IV–V).
+
+---
+
+## 6. Unresolved → Phase IV+
+
+| Item | Next |
+|---|---|
+| How agent architectures implement P1–P12 | Phase IV |
+| Sp. character depth vs Beinghood | Phase IV–V |
+| Gh. persona disclosure policies | Phase V |
+| Moral/legal personhood tables | WS5 / WS12 |
+| Empirical measures for P-dimensions | later methods work |
+
+---
+
+## 7. Unblock for SOUL-WP-0005
+
+Artificial Beings research may assume:
+
+- APE vs Being distinction,
+- P-profile language for “someone-like,”
+- Character/Persona/Actor separation,
+- multi-Persona without automatic identity split,
+- no moral/legal smuggling from descriptive scores.
+
+## 8. Compact Phase III thesis
+
+> **Personhood is how strongly an entity is someone-like; Beinghood is whether
+> that someonehood coheres as a continuing, addressable counterpart. Character
+> is what tends to stay disposed; Persona is which face appears; Actor is what
+> runs. Confusing any two of these produces most of the category errors in
+> contemporary AI “person” talk.**