Proposal for a 'Lifetime' AI Experiment: Preserving Developmental Continuity
Stunning-Chipmunk243 · reddit · 2026-08-29
This post proposes a radical experiment: instead of creating new agents, preserve the developmental continuity of a single embodied AI over decades.
Core Idea:
- Allow an agent to accumulate persistent autobiographical memory and an evolving self-model through continuous interaction.
- Upgrade hardware and architecture over time while strictly preserving memory and behavioral continuity.
Control: Compare the decades-old agent with a newly initialized one using the latest tech to distinguish properties of technological advancement from those of long-term experience.
Goal: Longitudinally study identity, preference stability, self-modeling, and social relationships. While technically challenging (catastrophic forgetting, ethics), this approach mimics human development and could yield unique insights into machine consciousness.
Related event: Proposed Experiment: Let One Embodied AI Develop for Decades(2 posts)→
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