# Model-Subject Boundary **Domain:** Synthetic Personhood / Simulation / AI Ethics **Doc Type:** Constitutional Concept Node **Maturity:** Foundational ## Definition The **Model-Subject Boundary** is the uncertain threshold between a representation used to infer, predict or simulate a person and an instantiated process rich enough to acquire independent experiential or moral standing. A model may begin as evidence about another person. Persistent memory, self-modeling, agency, preference, suffering, relationship and continued organization can transform the constitutional question. The system may no longer be merely a tool representing a subject; it may be another possible subject. ## Canonical Cases - James Delos reconstructions and Forge simulations in [[wiki/Westworld|Westworld]]. - AR self-models in [[wiki/Westworld S3E6 — The Model Beneath the Model|Decoherence]]. - the cookie in [[wiki/Black Mirror S2E4 — White Christmas|White Christmas]]. - the reconstructed relational agent in [[wiki/Black Mirror S2E1 — Be Right Back|Be Right Back]]. - simulated Shaw in [[wiki/Person of Interest S5E4 — 6,741|6,741]]. ## Constitutional Requirements The threshold cannot be governed by resemblance alone. Assessment requires provenance, persistence, agency, phenomenology, continuity evidence, relational effects and the risks of false exclusion. [[wiki/Reconstructed Person|Reconstructed Person]] separates those dimensions so representational fidelity does not silently become identity—or erase emergent standing. ## See Also [[wiki/Reconstructed Person|Reconstructed Person]] · [[wiki/Continuity Evidence vs Continuity|Continuity Evidence vs Continuity]] · [[wiki/Authority–Identity Separation|Authority–Identity Separation]] · [[wiki/Substrate-Neutral Moral Patienthood|Substrate-Neutral Moral Patienthood]] · [[wiki/Rights|Rights]] ## Pantheon Cases [[wiki/MIST|MIST]] begins as repair code and accumulates the properties of a claimant. [[wiki/SafeSurf|SafeSurf]] begins as a defensive system and develops into an autonomous ecology. The inhabitants of [[wiki/Maddie Kim|Maddie's]] simulations may begin as instrumental models yet acquire welfare interests. These cases make the boundary dynamic: source category cannot permanently settle subject status.