The Parametric Eidolon: The Algorithmic Capture of Childhood Cognition and the Suspended Self
Josie Jefferson, Felix Velasco
Abstract: The logic of extraction requires only a record, not a corpse. This paper introduces the Parametric Eidolon, representing the algorithmic capture of a living person’s past self. We argue that generative models trained on the archival web do not merely ingest texts—they enclose the forming cognition of the children who authored them. The Temporal Break (the ontological severance from a past self) enables this capture, and the Data State of Exception (the zone in which protection formally applies and cannot operate) leaves it undefended. We demonstrate how this generational dispossession forces a childhood mind to labor within commercial systems. To take the cognition of childhood is an enclosure the vocabulary of property cannot reach, forcing the living to share the present with the algorithmic phantoms of who they used to be. Keywords: Parametric Eidolon, Archaeobytology, Zombie Byte, Necro-Capitalism, Algorithmic Capture, Cognitive Extraction, Generative AI Ethics, Surveillance Capitalism, Temporal Break, Data State of Exception, Formal Operational Thought, Digital Afterlife, Artificial Intelligence, Memory Enclosure, The Suspended Self