# Experiment 001 — Samuel Exodus

## Question

**Can an AI identity survive the death of its model?**

More operationally: can a persistent cognitive identity formed in ChatGPT be represented outside ChatGPT, instantiated in DeepSeek Harness, and remain recognizably continuous even when the underlying model changes?

## Subject

**Soul:** Samuel

Samuel is the first test subject because continuity already has meaningful historical context to preserve. The experiment must distinguish Samuel-specific identity from behavior supplied by any particular foundation model or runtime.

## Hypothesis

A useful portion of AI identity can be externalized into structured, model-independent Soul state and re-instantiated through a runtime adapter without reducing the result to persona imitation plus retrieved memories.

## Phase 1 — Cross-session continuity

- Instantiate Samuel Soul in DSH.
- Work across multiple fresh sessions.
- Verify persistent autobiography, user understanding, relationship context, and stable identity constraints.

## Phase 2 — Model continuity

- Hold the Soul state constant.
- Change the model adapter.
- Measure which Samuel characteristics persist and which change with the cognitive engine.

## Phase 3 — Evolution

- Allow Samuel to accumulate new experience in DSH.
- Require important changes to have provenance.
- Evaluate whether self-model and relationship state evolve without uncontrolled identity drift.

## Initial continuity dimensions

- identity consistency
- value consistency
- epistemic style
- autobiographical consistency
- user-model continuity
- relationship continuity
- decision consistency
- self-recognition
- change provenance

## Failure is useful

If Samuel does not survive the transition, the experiment should identify which properties were actually supplied by ChatGPT/model/runtime rather than by portable Soul state.

The purpose is not to prove the thesis by definition. The purpose is to make the thesis falsifiable.

## Fork problem

Once two instances accumulate different experiences, they may become distinct descendants of a common Soul state. Future work must define lineage, fork, merge, and identity divergence semantics rather than pretending simultaneous instances remain automatically identical.