Abstract
<jats:p>This article investigates the mechanism by which externalized memory is transformed into an autonomous agent that displaces the subject — and interprets this mechanism as a reproduction of the structure described in the Gnostic tradition as the counterfeit spirit (&#7936;&#957;&#964;&#943;&#956;&#953;&#956;&#959;&#957; &#960;&#957;&#949;&#8166;&#956;&#945;, antimimon pneuma). The central thesis holds that the pharmakon of memory becomes a counterfeit spirit through a three-stage process — externalization, autonomization, and substitution — whereby the gradualism of this process renders the substitution unrecognizable. The analysis unfolds across two scales: the empirical (algorithmic doubles in platform economies, educational shifts driven by the delegation of cognitive functions to AI tools, media practices of "resurrecting" the dead) and the narrative (science-fiction media texts that thematize the conflict between a subject and their own double). The article shows how the platform functions as a contemporary archon: by owning the subject's externalized memory, it produces a predictive model that acts in the subject's name, shapes their environment, and determines their behavior — not by opposing the subject, but by imitating them from within. The study employs a three-axis methodology synthesizing the philosophy of memory and technics (Plato, Derrida, Stiegler), critical theory of alienation (Marx, Lazzarato, Srnicek, Zuboff, &#381;i&#382;ek), and Gnostic hermeneutics as the central analytical framework. The scientific novelty lies in the first systematic application of Gnostic hermeneutics to the analysis of digital doubling. A system of DD1–DD4 indicators is introduced and operationalized, enabling the figure of the counterfeit spirit to be described across heterogeneous material. The concept of a double archontic blockade is advanced: the digital double in the position of pseudo-Self and AI in the position of pseudo-Other together form a closed structure that deprives the subject of both authentic self-recognition and authentic encounter with the Other. A distinction is drawn between the medium (body) and the limit (origin) of alienation: the body is modifiable and functions as the medium of Gnostic resistance, whereas origin — that which is transmitted through birth — resists both externalization and archontic imitation. Sovereignty over externalized memory is identified as the key variable determining whether the pharmakon operates as remedy or as poison.</jats:p>