A new way to understand yourself
You are precious information,
alive in time.
You are a living body shaped by inherited information, memory and experience. Seeing yourself through this lens can help you understand what shaped you, choose how to grow, and recognize what you pass on to others.
Discover the informational self →
A secular perspective on identity, meaning and continuity.
Information and its processing are fundamental to life.
Life. Memory. Identity.
The central idea
The Informational Self proposes that many aspects of what we call “spirit”—our memories, identity and capacity to act—are better understood as information at work in a living body.
Follow the questions
A different way to see yourself.
Begin anywhere. Each question opens a path through the essays and conversations behind Informational Self.
01
What is the informational self?
A living person remembers, learns, feels and acts. The informational perspective connects these capacities to the patterns and processes of the brain and body.
02
Why did we imagine a spirit?
Thoughts and memories are real, yet we cannot hold them like objects. Explore how the language of information can clarify experiences long described as spiritual.
03
What makes you, you?
Your identity develops through memory, temperament, relationships and action. The living organism that sustains these processes is part of the self.
04
What continues beyond a life?
Genes, ideas, skills and influence can pass between people and generations. These forms of continuity can outlast the individual who carried them.
05
Where does meaning come from?
Love, curiosity, creativity and care can give a life direction. This project explores their value within a natural world, without supernatural explanations.
Life, continuity & reproduction
What passes through us can become something new.
A child develops a new self through inherited information, learning and relationships. Parenting, teaching and creating are different ways of contributing to lives beyond our own.
Informational continuity gives us a way to value that contribution without promising personal immortality or making parenthood an obligation.
About the project
A naturalistic philosophy.
An open inquiry.
Informational Self is a philosophical project by Daniel Lachance, exploring identity, meaning and continuity through the organization of living systems.
The starting point is concrete: biological information is physically embodied. The broader interpretation of the self is a philosophical proposal, open to criticism and refinement.
