I read this article yesterday and it’s strangely interesting and creepy at the same time.
It’s an MIT Technology Review article called “Digital immortality: How your life’s data means a version of you could live forever” about a CEO who’s creating his own digital avatar so that he can still be a consultant to the company after he dies. I guess Netflix’s Black Mirror is getting real after all.
It’s not even an idea, it’s being made. He’s working with MIT Media Lab on an application called “Augmented Eternity” which basically takes data from your online social media/activity and analyses it to create a version of you.
There are two very interesting points from the article :
- There are so many dead people on the internet like Facebook accounts of the deceased that linger on after death. No status updates, no new photos, nothing just existing in silence.
- One of the challenges of making the application is that humans are complicated. The internet can only show a side of you but in real life we have many different personalities. This maybe the reason why a digital version of you will never be truly you no matter how much data technology can attain.
td @ ual 