The key to being an individual is to have a functional structure in which diverse experiences across its components are bound together in a way that generates causal relationships and composite memories that belong to the higher space of the individual and not its components.

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

• There is a direct connection between the living structure of the world and the achieved person-ness we experience in ourselves.claim0.799
• The basic hallmarks of being a Self are the ability to pursue goals, to own compound memories, and to serve as the locus for credit assignment, at a scale larger than any component.claim0.797
  Proposed operational definition of a Self within the TAME framework.
• There is only one I, a personal universal presence that underlies all living structure and manifests as the feeling of relatedness.claim0.797
  Alexander's core metaphysical proposal introduced in §8.
• H1: Individuality requires a dynamical process (development), mediating the plastic expression of components in the context of one another, with the specific form of computing a collective character that is a non-linearly separable function of (embryonic) particle characters, with the effect of coordinating reproduction based on this collective character.hypothesis0.795
  Main hypothesis about the architecture of individuality
• The complex nature of functional relationships between component parts begins to look less like the product of selection at the system level, and more like the source of evolutionary individuality.claim0.789
  Inverts the causal arrow: relationships produce individuality, not vice versa.
• Genetic identity is insufficient to define biological individuality.claim0.787
  Argues against purely genetic definitions of the self.
• Functional relationships necessary for evolutionary individuality are the same as those required for organismic individuality and constitute cognitive architectures.hypothesis0.783
• All intelligences are collective intelligences — individual humans are collections of parts, competencies, drives, and tools both internal and external to the body.claim0.782
  Undermines the Steinbeck-style notion of the lone creative individual and challenges the human-AI distinction