Lifetime Integration Theory: Experience-Based Self-Locating Probability

If nonhuman animals are conscious, why am I human? This paper proposes Lifetime Integration Theory (LIT), which considers the probability of experiencing a given life on the basis of brain size and the duration of experience over that lifetime. Drawing on thought experiments and brain research, it considers weighting by the first and second powers of neuron count and examines reasons to include the duration of experience in the weight. This opens the possibility that extremely long lives for people alive today could help explain why I am human. If people today are also the first generation to live long enough to benefit from technology that enables extreme longevity, the same framework can address the question, “Why was I born in the present era?” The paper explores whether the Extreme Longevity Hypothesis (ELH) could hold, taking into account life-extension technology, future increases in the numbers of humans, animals, and other conscious beings, and the goals of superintelligence.