Inhurer

Inhurer is a fictional concept used in speculative fiction and philosophy to describe a hypothetical process by which an entity maintains its identity or continuity by distributing informational content across multiple substrates. The term is not part of established scientific vocabulary and has no canonical definition outside literary and theoretical contexts.

Origin and etymology: The coinage appears in debates around mind uploading and identity persistence. It is presented as a verb or mechanism in various texts, with the implied meaning of ensuring continued existence through redundancy. Since it is used across different fictional works, there is no single authoritative etymology.

Concept and usage: Inhurer scenarios involve creating copies or backups of core personal data—memories, values, and causal histories—and integrating them into independent physical or digital carriers. The aim is that, if one carrier is damaged or destroyed, the remaining carriers enable ongoing function or reconstruction of the original consciousness. Inhurer is often used to explore how information preservation relates to personal continuity.

Philosophical and ethical implications: Debates around inhurer focus on whether redundancy truly preserves the original self or merely yields functionally equivalent successors. Questions arise regarding the ontology of identity, the status of copied or redistributed consciousness, consent, autonomy, and the rights of post-injury agents.

Reception and references: As a thought experiment, inhurer appears in academic discussions, science fiction narratives, and ethical explorations of information preservation. It is typically cited as a tool for illustrating challenges in personal identity and survivability concepts rather than as a pragmatic proposal.