Your Digital Afterlife? AI and Death in the Metaverse

Life, death, love and loss are some of the defining factors of the human experiences. But as we enter the age where progressing technology comes to a crossroads with the promise of escaping the problems of conventional paradigms, many have begun to wonder how some of these issues can be resolved. As with many things, people are turning to AI (artificial intelligence) as a possible means for preserving a person's life, or at least their characteristics and experiences, so that the end of a person's natural life doesn't mean that we lose access to them forever.

In this video we look at several groups - ranging from startups to nonprofit organizations and even talented individuals working for their own reasons - who are working with AI and examining the potential to digitize a person's essence and keep it around after their death.

Sound morbid? Maybe. Tempting? Probably, at least to a number of people. There are few who have not been touched by the pain of losing somebody close to them, and all will eventually experience it. As we struggle to come to terms with mortality and the limited nature of our life, it's only natural that competing opinions on the topic of AI life preservation and recreation will form.

Would you upload yourself into a cloud as a digital consciousness to be preserved for the future? Do you think that "you" can ever be preserved to be brought back to life as a conscious backup of yourself? Or do you think that even the best AI imitations will be only that, a useful recreation but not a method of actually preserving the future?

Whatever your thoughts, I think it's likely we will see some impressive technological growth in the area of AI life preserving and extending technologies.

Links to works referenced:

Attributions:
Photos of BINA48:

Bina & Bina

SXSW Martine interview:

Clips from Transbeman 101

TED clip:

Holocaust Museum footage:

Eva Kor interview:

00:00 Intro - Death and Loss
02:28 Microsoft Patent and Reaction
03:10 Terasem Movement Foundation
06:15 Ethical Concerns of AI Life Extension and Preservation
09:12 Griefbots and Replicating Dead Loved Ones
10:22 Using AI to Preserve Ancestry
11:10 Holocaust Digital Preservation
12:02 Preserving Important Perspectives
12:34 Wrapping Up Conclusions

Music by Epidemic Sound

[ItsYaBoiV]

I hope we go the route of Ghost in the Shell instead. I wanna cram my brain into a badass robot bod.

[mindtoasted]

Just relaxing how comfortable i'm understanding your speak, thanks for being a great creator hope you got something big coming up right away.

[divadgnol]

I love the idea of having a repository for information that can last into perpetuity.

If we are to realize the benefits of interstellar travel this may be one way to overcome the frailty of the human body.


In addition to all that I truly appreciate your succinct ability to deliver information on a plethora of interesting topics.

Thanks

[davincisgadgetsuganda.]

Big up from uganda 🇺🇬 I love the science u talked about

[sampletext]

11:39
Ah yes, Joseph M
How curious that every single survivor has been in contact with him, he was a very organized man to have been in contact with all those people and met every single one of them.

[shontaiwhatley]

Is it me or do terasm have the same logo as metaverse

[Kittykat]

I think studying the past works of importance is great. However, recreation of the dead is a horrible idea. Why not just kill all the living and create a world for them. One has to accept death, grief and loss. Pretending they are alive with a recreation is morbidly sick.

[clivewynnciel]

Consciousness and memory are not the same thing. This is a very basic mistake. Preserving somebody's memories is only a preservation of information. Information is something collected by the conscious person. Storing the data doesn't "reproduce" the person. It's only an animated death-mask. Consciousness and memory are not the same thing.