# Approximate Beings Catalog (Phase IV)

**Workplan:** SOUL-WP-0005-T03  
**Date:** 2026-08-12  
**Criteria:** Phase I–III — Autonomous individuality (A), Descriptive personhood
(B / P-profile), Social recognition (C), addressability, continuity topology.
**Not** moral or legal status.

Ratings are **illustrative ordinal judgments** for research classification, not
measurements or product reviews.

Legend: L = low, M = medium, H = high, — = not applicable / varies.

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## 1. Criteria used

| Code | Criterion |
|---|---|
| A | Autonomous individuality (B1–B8 profile strength) |
| B | Descriptive personhood (P1–P12 exposure) |
| C | Social recognition as persistent counterpart |
| Addr | Addressability (stable target of interaction) |
| Cont | Diachronic continuity mechanisms |
| Class | Soul Frame classification |

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## 2. Catalog

| System class (examples) | A | B | C | Addr | Cont | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stateless API chatbot (no memory product) | L | M–H | M* | M | L | **APE** (not Being). *C often illusory (user projection). TE-01 |
| Tool-using coding agent (session-scoped) | L–M | L–M | L | M | L | **Functional Agent**; weak APE if chatty |
| Scheduled enterprise bot (tickets/email) | M | L | L–M | H | M | Functional Agent; address high, personhood low |
| Generative Agents (Park et al. sandbox) | M | H | M (in-sim) | H (in-sim) | M | **APE / proto-Being**; heteronomous persistence |
| Consumer companion with long-term memory | L–M | H | H | H | M | **Strong APE**; candidate Being if continuity governed |
| Branded “digital employee” (role agent) | M | M | M–H | H | M | Agent + Persona; usually not constitutive Being |
| Digital human (avatar + TTS + thin dialogue) | L | M | M | H | L–M | Body-heavy **APE** |
| Multi-agent research swarm under one UI name | M | M | H (brand) | H | M | Often **many Agents / one Persona**; TE-05 |
| Self-healing infra control plane | H | L | L | M | H | Autonomous individual **≠** Being (daemon case) |
| Base LLM (weights only) | L | L** | L | L | L | Substrate/Actor material; ** not if prompted as character once |
| Identity-layer embodied agent (proposed) | M–H | M–H | ? | H | H (designed) | Research target for **governable individual** → Being path |
| Human (baseline) | H | H | H | H | H | Paradigmatic **Being** |
| Authorized Ghost (mature design target) | M | H | H | H | special | Phase V; succession not automatic numerical identity |
| Spirit instantiation `Sp.` | L–M | M–H | M | H | L–M at start | New lineage APE/candidate; not source person |

\* Recognition of chatbots is often high commercially while ontological continuity is low.  
\*\* Base models can expose personhood when prompted but lack individuating process.

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## 3. Approximate vs mere task executor

| Mere task executor | Approximate Being (candidate) |
|---|---|
| Goals fully external each run | Diachronic goals/commitments |
| No individuating memory partition | Attributable history |
| Disposable runtime | Continuity Bridge or ongoing process |
| No counterpart models of particular others | Differentiated SM3/SM5 |
| No expectation of “same one tomorrow” | Address + recognition of continuity |

**Rule of thumb:** if partners reasonably ask “is this the *same one* as last
month?” and the system has apparatus to make that question meaningful, it has
entered **proto-Being** territory — still not sufficient for full Beinghood.

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## 4. Design implication

To move APE → Being (research checklist, not product claim):

1. Raise **A** without losing **B** (avoid pure daemon path)  
2. Engineer **Cont** with provenance (avoid silent rewrite)  
3. Stabilize **Addr** across Actor changes  
4. Earn **C** without false advertising of continuity  
5. Keep Agent/Sp./Gh. labels as **provenance**, not substitute for the stack  

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## 5. Sources

RN-001/003 cases; Park et al.; Qin/Otsuka identity papers; Phase I–III criteria;
this phase crosswalk + memory note.