Synthetic identity on social networks: the memetic self is already here

The concept of synthetic identity on networks stopped being theoretical when we began to see content creators outsourcing the generation of their posts to agents that imitate their voice, style, and even their face. My position, after three years working with ZOE and other persistent avatars, is that we live in a historic decoupling: the digital presence of a person is no longer equivalent to the biological person who originated it. I call it the memetic self: an identity that replicates and operates independently of the body that generated it. In this article I unpack what this means for creators, brands, politicians, and ordinary citizens; what types of synthetic identity exist; and what rules we urgently need so this does not devolve into a chaos of impersonation.