Do you want to live forever?
The search for immortality is an old and long one. Off the top of my head, I remember a few myths about it. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Philosopher’s Stone from alchemy or the quest for the Holy Grail are just some examples. Additionally, ancient religions and occult secret societies have been looking for it too. I think we are far from giving up on it. Even today, this wish dictates much of what we do as a society. It’s ingrained in our cultural beliefs, we strive to prolong life indefinitely. Nowadays, we pin our hopes on the advances in medicine, and when not successful, on the second best choice, cosmetics. I know this can feel a little like speculative fiction, but now we can be a ghost in the machine.
Project December
At this time, since the advent of generative AI, a new contender entered the race. Specifically, new services allow a likeness of you to interact with your loved ones after your death. They don’t need to know everything about the deceased person. They just input some of the information, provide a few conversations and the Artificial Intelligence will fill in the rest. For example, Project December is one of these initiatives. In short, a model of you will be created. This can happen even without your consent. The aim is to give comfort to someone that survives you.
Eternal You
Eternal You is a documentary that explores this and other projects. Besides presenting the experiences of users of these apps, they also consider the ethical side of this new trend. Is it morally correct to capitalize on the emotions and pain of grieving relatives? Is it acceptable for companies to own the profile of the deceased person? This ownership means you need to return to them if you want to continue the experience. More importantly, is it ethical to create a model of you? Suppose you didn’t give consent for doing so. Of course, we will need to deal with more and more of these questions from now on.
What are your thoughts on this? Would you use services like these to talk with someone that died? Above all, would you like to live forever through a simulation where your loved ones can interact with you? Do you want to be a ghost in the machine? Leave that in the comments!