isikutesse

Isikutesse is a neologism that appears in speculative fiction and some contemporary philosophical discussions to denote a hypothetical condition in which aspects of a person’s identity or selfhood are accessible, examinable, or alterable independently from the physical body and ordinary social presentation. The term is not widely attested in standard dictionaries and is largely used in fringe theoretical contexts or as a device in narrative worlds exploring mind and body.

Etymology and usage history are uncertain, and isikutesse is generally treated as a constructed or experimental word. It is often discussed as a thought experiment rather than a empirically grounded concept, with writers and philosophers using it to probe how identity might persist, change, or be reconfigured across different substrates such as memory, digital media, or prosthetic systems.

In practical terms, discussions around isikutesse focus on questions of authenticity, autonomy, and the boundaries of the self. Proponents argue that the concept helps clarify debates about privacy, consent, and mind–body continuity in an era of advancing technologies, while critics warn that the term can be vague or conflated with existing debates about personhood and consciousness.

Cultural presence tends to be strongest in speculative fiction, where characters may undergo experiential or technological processes that approximate the idea of isolating or transferring aspects of selfhood. In philosophical critique, isikutesse functions as a heuristic for examining how selfhood is defined, preserved, or endangered in hypothetical scenarios.

See also: mind uploading, identity, consciousness, posthumanism, phenomenology.