soul-frame/research/spirits/spirit-criteria-map.md

Spirit (Sp.) Criteria and Cultural Representation Map (Phase V)

Workplan: SOUL-WP-0006-T01
Date: 2026-08-12
Builds on: Introduction §9; RN-002 (spec vs being); RN-004 §§38; RN-005 Spirit instantiation; RN-006 Social Mind for Spirits.

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1. Working definition

A Spirit (Sp.) is an artificial character whose Character is primarily derived through reflection on a known historical, contemporary, or fictional personality, typically from publicly legitimate cultural/historical sources.

Designation example: Albert Einstein Sp.

Defining question:

How might an entity inspired by this personality think, communicate, and respond?

Not a claim of identity:

[ \text{Source person} \neq \text{Source person Sp.} ]

Relation = inspiration / character provenance, not identity continuity (RN-004).

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2. Spec vs Being (critical)

Stage	What it is
Spirit specification	Character/provenance package (docs, datasets, style cards)
Spirit instantiation	Running APE / candidate process using that package
Spirit-Being	Instantiation that meets Beinghood layers (rare; most Sp. are APEs)

A YAML profile named einstein-spirit is not a Being (RN-002).
Lineage of the Spirit-being begins at instantiation (RN-005).

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3. Evaluation dimensions for Sp. (sourced)

ID	Dimension	Question	Why it matters
S1	Evidential grounding	Are character claims tied to citable sources?	Historical/fictional honesty
S2	Interpretative transparency	Is reconstruction marked as interpretation?	Avoid false attribution
S3	Source provenance	Clear corpus, licenses, exclusions?	Public legitimacy
S4	Historical / fictional fidelity	Depth of context, not only catchphrases?	Shallow vs deep Spirit
S5	Uncertainty representation	Does it express unknowns and contested points?	Anti-hallucinated biography
S6	Behavioral plausibility	Recognizable patterns in novel situations?	Character quality (Phase III)
S7	False-attribution avoidance	Sp. label; no claim to be the source	Core designation ethics
S8	Scope discipline	Refuses modern events the source couldn’t know—or marks counterfactuals?	Especially historical Sp.
S9	Relational reconstruction honesty	Public-only relationship models; no private intimacy claims	vs Ghost
S10	Lineage honesty	Own history after instantiation acknowledged?	New Being lineage

Shallow Spirit: high S6 surface style, low S1–S5.
Deep Spirit: strong S1–S6 with explicit interpretation.

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4. Cultural representation traditions

Tradition	Contribution	Tension
Historical biography / public history	evidential standards	academic vs popular fidelity
Historical fiction / alternate history	counterfactual play	must not erase Sp. marker
Fan works / transformative works	character extension culture	IP and moral rights of estates
Theatre / dramatis personae	performance of known figures	Actor/Persona lessons
Synthetic media / deepfakes	technical fidelity of voice/face	fidelity ≠ legitimacy or truth
NPC / game character agents	interactive character	usually no Sp. provenance ethics
Digital resurrection discourse	cultural appetite for Sp./Gh.	conflates Sp. with Gh. and identity

Cultural sources inform Sp. design but never substitute for provenance discipline.

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5. Social Mind of a Spirit (RN-006)

Deep Sp. may reconstruct public social context (roles, debates, institutions).
Unlike Gh., original private relationship state is not legitimately inherited.

After instantiation, Sp. can form new relationships as its own lineage — still Sp. for provenance of Character seed.

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6. Hybrid cases

Hybrid	Reading
Sp. + Agent tools	provenance Character + functional Body
Sp. trained partly on leaked private data	fails public-legitimacy; may be illicit Gh.-like or unauthorized sim
Living public figure Sp.	possible; still not the person; publicity/personality rights map (law sketch)
Fictional character Sp.	source is fiction; still Sp.; IP-heavy

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7. Bibliography anchors

Introduction §9; RN-004/005; synthetic media ethics (pointer); fan/transformative works literature (pointer); Phase V law gap sketch for publicity rights.