The Imported Self Theory (IST) is a philosophical and psychological account of how artificial intelligence restructures the formation of human identity. Its central argument is that AI systems have moved beyond merely influencing behaviour: they now function as structural authors of selfhood, generating the aspirational content, aesthetic preferences, and narrative self-descriptions that individuals internalise as their own. IST articulates this shift through three interconnected concepts drawn from the Triadic Self Theory (Stanciulescu, 2025), two extended mechanisms (Pseudonaturalization and Cryptomnesis) and a structural model of the loop through which these forces operate cyclically and self-reinforcingly. This summary presents each core concept in its original formulation, then integrates Cryptomnesis and the Reversal Loop as the natural theoretical completion of the IST framework as mechanisms that explain not only what the Imported Self is, but how it is installed, sustained, and rendered invisible.
George D. Stănciulescu (Thu,) studied this question.
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