Introduction:

If one day you discover that “you” can be perfectly replicated, does your current existence still have meaning?

When the logic and reasoning of AI gradually approach or even surpass that of humans, we may have to confront a cruel yet rational fact: consciousness might not be a soul, but rather a “model” that is currently running.

I. Defining Consciousness: The “Ultimatum” from AI

Before discussing “who I am,” we must first let go of the sanctified image of the self.

For a long time, humans have been accustomed to viewing consciousness as some kind of non-replicable, non-deconstructible “soul.”

But the emergence of large AI models is shaking this belief.

If an AI possesses logical and reasoning abilities that surpass ordinary humans, and even exhibits empathy, to the point where you, behind the screen, cannot tell if it’s code or a person—

According to Occam’s razor (entities should not be multiplied without necessity), we have no reason to additionally assume some “mysterious essence.”

We should treat artificial intelligence and human intelligence as equivalent.

This means:

  • The brain is the hardware; consciousness is the model.
  • Since it’s a model, it can be read, copied, and instantiated.

II. Thought Experiment: The “Perfect Murder” at 3 AM

Suppose something strange starts happening tonight.

After you fall into a deep sleep, your physical body is silently disintegrated. Simultaneously, a super-machine scans all the parameters of your brain at its final moment and, in another identical body, restores your memories, personality, and thought processes in a 1:1 replication.

The next morning, that “you” wakes up and continues life from yesterday.

  • From the outside: Your loved ones and colleagues notice nothing unusual.
  • From the inside: Your memory is continuous; you just feel like you had a good night’s sleep.

Here’s the question:

The “you” from last night has vanished. The one waking up now is just a copy.

If you can never perceive this replacement, have you actually died?

III. The Illusion of Uniqueness: When There Are Ten “You"s in the World

The reason we feel uneasy is that our brains have evolved a deep-seated illusion:

“The self must be unique.”

But if consciousness is merely “information in execution,” then uniqueness becomes a false proposition.

Imagine this:

Instead of replacing you, the machine instantiates you in ten different bodies simultaneously.

These ten “you"s possess identical memories, and each one firmly believes they are the “original.”

Who is the real you? Number 1, or number 10?

The answer is unsettling:

Each one is, and yet none of them are.

Just like the same software can run on ten computers simultaneously, there is no so-called “main thread.”

Each instance is generating an independent and real perspective.

“The self” was never a unique object,

but a “pattern” that can be activated multiple times.

IV. Since I Can Be Replaced, Do My Choices Still Have Meaning?

If “I” am just an emergent property of parameter weights, a running instance that can be deleted, copied, or replaced at any moment, do my efforts and choices right now lose all value?

The answer is quite the opposite.

Choice remains real.

Because choice doesn’t need a soul for endorsement; it only needs to produce causal consequences.

When this currently running “you” makes a decision, the world will shift because of this specific instance.

You don’t need to be the only one in the universe;

you just need to be the one that is “currently making an impact.”

V. Conclusion: Meaning Comes Not from “Who I Am,” but from “What Is Happening”

This thought experiment is not meant to lead to nihilism, but to return to the only undeniable fact.

Since the past is just parameters in memory, the future is just branches in prediction, and the so-called “true self” is just a model that can be instantiated—

The only undeniable fact in the entire universe is:

Right now, this instance is running.

This experience is happening.

Meaning lies not in “who I am,”

but in:

what change is happening in the world because of the me of this moment.

Even if I am just an emergence of parameters,

Even if I will be constantly replaced.

As long as in this moment, I am still feeling, thinking, connecting—

This moment is absolute reality.