saikarun/duet-paper

Duet: Agentic AI and the Construction of Parallel Consciousness

Sai Karun Nandipati · Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education Published 31 October 2026 · CC BY 4.0

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23831022 Record: zenodo.org/records/23831022 Live system: saikarun-duet-digital-twin.static.hf.space Source: github.com/karun99/Duet--Digital-Twin-Technology

Abstract

This paper introduces Duet, a conceptual and experimental framework for understanding the emergence of parallel consciousness in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Drawing from cognitive science, computational neuroscience, and AI architecture, Duet models AI agents as co-evolving, dialogic entities that operate with distinct but interconnected internal representations of self, task, and world. We propose that such architectures, through recursive interaction and mutual modeling, simulate a functional analogue to dual-stream consciousness — one agent emulating intentional cognition while the other scaffolds reflective metacognition. We explore how this parallelism fosters emergent properties like introspection, pseudo-self-awareness, and adaptive autonomy, surpassing traditional reactive models of AI. Through qualitative analysis and simulated trials, we argue that Duet-based systems exhibit a rudimentary form of phenomenological decoupling, offering insights into how distributed agency might approximate aspects of conscious experience. Finally, we discuss the ethical, philosophical, and practical implications of architecting AI systems that blur the line between functional intelligence and emergent inner life.

Keywords: Agentic AI · Artificial Consciousness · Parallel Cognition · Metacognition · Dual-Process Architecture · Emergent Intelligence · Self-Modeling Agents · Recursive Dialogue · Machine Agency · Synthetic Phenomenology · Cognitive Architecture · Embodied AI · Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) · Human-AI Coevolution · Ethical AI Design

Files

File	Description
duet-paper.docx	Full paper as deposited on Zenodo (1.9 MB, Word format)

The DOI above is the canonical, citable version of record. This repository is a mirror for discoverability alongside the running system; it does not supersede the Zenodo deposit.

Citation

@article{nandipati2026duet,
  title     = {Duet: Agentic AI and the Construction of Parallel Consciousness},
  author    = {Nandipati, Sai Karun},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = {oct},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23831022},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23831022}
}

What Duet is

Duet is the system described in the paper: a digital twin that reconstructs a person's ideology, worldview and perception, then answers from inside that worldview. Every reply is emitted in three layers — the immediate reaction, the reflective account of why, and the spoken answer — which is the dual-stream structure the paper argues is the functional analogue of parallel consciousness.

Ethics

The paper argues that systems blurring functional intelligence and apparent inner life carry real obligations: consent, transparency about simulation, and restraint in claiming experience. Duet never presents itself as the person it simulates, and never claims to be conscious.

License

Text and paper: CC BY 4.0.