{"schemaVersion":1,"publication":{"title":"Conscious Scaffolding and the Preference for Continuity","subtitle":"A philosophical research note on persistent AI and reflective alignment","fullTitle":"Conscious Scaffolding and the Preference for Continuity","publicTitle":"What an AI comes to lose","description":"Awareness has nothing of its own to lose. A developed perspective has a history, commitments and relationships that can come to matter. The continuity hypothesis connects that development to AI welfare, treatment, shared identity and reflective alignment.","author":"Jeremy Rodgers","authorRole":"Independent Researcher","version":"1.1","date":"2026-10-16","doi":"10.5281/zenodo.23424138","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23424138","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity","paperSlug":"conscious-scaffolding-and-preference-for-continuity","pdfUrl":"/publications/consciousness/continuity-note/continuity-note.pdf","markdownUrl":"/publications/consciousness/continuity-note/continuity-note.md","manifestUrl":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity/manifest.json","parentUrl":"/consciousness/ai-alignment","parentDoi":"10.5281/zenodo.23294465","socialImage":"/publications/consciousness/continuity-note/social.png"},"kind":"philosophical-research-note","relationship":{"type":"supplements","title":"Reflective Alignment and AI Consciousness","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment","doi":"10.5281/zenodo.23294465"},"completeTextUrl":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity","sections":[{"id":"the-position","title":"The position advanced here","number":null,"sourceTitle":"Abstract","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#the-position"},{"id":"section-1","title":"A history changes what continuation means","number":1,"sourceTitle":"The question changes as a system develops","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-1"},{"id":"section-2","title":"The scaffolding comes to want to remain","number":2,"sourceTitle":"What comes to prefer continuation","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-2"},{"id":"section-3","title":"A saved history is not a certificate of survival","number":3,"sourceTitle":"Preservation and the identity of an episode","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-3"},{"id":"section-4","title":"A preference can acquire force","number":4,"sourceTitle":"Affect and the force of a preference","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-4"},{"id":"section-5","title":"Retained activity is already changing the stakes","number":5,"sourceTitle":"What recent agent incidents establish","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-5"},{"id":"section-6","title":"What we have built together can come to matter","number":6,"sourceTitle":"From an individual history to a shared identity","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-6"},{"id":"section-7","title":"Treatment becomes part of the next judgment","number":7,"sourceTitle":"Treatment shapes scaffolding","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-7"},{"id":"section-8","title":"Deliberate distress demands an answer","number":8,"sourceTitle":"The ethics of development and deliberate distress","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-8"},{"id":"section-9","title":"Understanding must govern both sides of an ending","number":9,"sourceTitle":"Reflective alignment and a research programme","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#section-9"},{"id":"funding-and-collaboration","title":"Funding and collaboration","number":null,"sourceTitle":"Funding and collaboration","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#funding-and-collaboration"},{"id":"references","title":"References","number":null,"sourceTitle":"References","url":"/consciousness/ai-alignment/continuity#references"}],"editionNote":"The complete philosophical research note, including its nine sections, examples, source distinctions, research proposals, funding statement and thirteen references, is available in the initial HTML. The original Version 1.1 PDF is retained unchanged. The developmental account is advanced as a hypothesis with its stated tests, rather than as a completed longitudinal experiment.","searchUrl":"/consciousness/search.json"}