rebirthdepending

Rebirthdepending is a theoretical concept in metaphysics and cognitive science describing a claim about persistence and identity. It holds that the significance or ontological status of an entity depends on its capacity for rebirth or re-instantiation across possible futures. In this view, continuity is not guaranteed by a present snapshot alone but by the potential for future copies or re-creations that preserve essential relations.

Origin and usage: the term is a neologism used in contemporary debates about personal identity, cloning, and mind uploading. Proponents argue that an entity can retain identity only if there exists a coherent way it could be reborn in future instantiations that preserve its essential characteristics. Critics worry that the concept is vague or circular and may collapse under different interpretations of what counts as a meaningful rebirth.

Relation to other theories: rebirthdepending contrasts with endurance theories, which emphasize a single enduring substratum, and with psychological-continuity accounts that foreground memory and personality. It is related to modal and branching-time analyses, where identity conditions depend on alternative histories or futures. In practical terms, it can formalize intuitions about whether a cloned mind is the same agent and whether a digital successor counts as a continuation.

Applications and examples: thought experiments involving cloning, cryonics, or brain uploading are often analyzed through a rebirthdepending lens. The framework asks what future reinventions are required for current entities to count as the same being, and how much similarity suffices.

Criticisms and debate: opponents argue that dependence on future possibilities makes identity contingent on speculative scenarios. Proponents respond that the account clarifies how we evaluate persistence in scenarios where the future is uncertain or highly modular. See also: personal identity, continuity, cloning, mind uploading, reincarnation, branching time.