Linguistics

Staging the Question of Self: a Self-Contained, Self-Modifying Document that Mixes Poetry, Philosophy, and Code

Authors: Brent Hartshorn
Comments: 6 Pages. https://github.com/brentharts/introspecter

We describe a small system that treats the question "what is a self?" not as a thesis tobe proved but as an inquiry to be staged : made visible, evolved in documented steps, andshared. The system is a single PDF that carries its own source code as embedded file streams;a short appendix bootstrap extracts and runs that code to produce the next iteration. Itscontent is written in a small domain-specific language (DSL) whose symbols are simultaneouslymathematical notation, philosophical relations, and executable program. Each operator rendersas typeset mathematics, generates a natural-language question, and compiles to Python. Ahuman-in-the-loop step takes an "oracle" — a person, or a language model the person consults— that proposes the next evolution; symbolic statements are compiled to a fixed, sandboxed setof builder calls, while optional fenced code blocks may extend the engine itself, gated by explicithuman confirmation. We document the full pipeline, the minimal seed, and a worked examplein which the document grows a new relational operator. We are deliberate about what theinstrument does and does not establish: because the document can be rewritten to ask anything,the apparent depth of any stage is supplied by whoever authored it. The system is therefore afaithful instrument for staging an inquiry into selfhood; it is not, and by construction cannotbe, a demonstration that a self has emerged. We argue this honest framing is the interestingone.
Category: Linguistics