The Future of Remembrance: Are You Ready for Your Digital Twin?
The Art of Memorialising (TOaM), Digital Legacy Edition - September 2024
Whether you’re interesting in exploring the cutting edge of digital afterlife and digital immortality, or curious about the art of preserving your life stories, TAoM is here helping you leave a meaningful legacy online and off.
In This Issue:
Preserving memories and revolutionising dementia care with Sensay.
When planning a final send-off becomes a celebrity affair.
Who owns your data after your death and how do you feel about it being monetised?
Death Bots - a help or hindrance to mourning the loss of a loved one?
Feature Product - Sensay: Building Digital Immortality For All
How would you like to preserve your life story forever in digital immortality?
Imagine all your memories, life stories and experiences, preserved. A digital clone of you to chat with for your future generations. That is available to you now, through Sensay. Your digital twin knows everything you know, talks like you, and even looks like you. That’s what a Sensay Replica does.
At Sensay, there is a library of demonstration replicas you can chat with to see how the idea works. Famous figures, past and present.
For fun, I had a little chat with Aretha Franklin.
via the replica’s page at Sensay
There are endless ways this AI technology could preserve your life story while you can remember and tell it.
But what if your memories, or a loved one’s, are disappearing through dementia or Alzheimer’s?
Dan Thompson founded Sensay on the principles of memory preservation to aid dementia patients. Thinking about how you could develop these ideas could prove revolutionary for families and those who suffer from such illnesses. It would be interesting to see some actual cases of its use for this purpose. In later editions, I’ll revisit the product with an update.
Even perhaps patients who face Motor Neurone Disease taking their voice, now unable to speak the stories of their life anymore, could do through a replica forever?
What do you think about this idea?
Does the idea of preserving your wisdom and experiences in this way appeal to you?
How could this be used to store and access generations of life stories from your family?
The recent release of the road map to digital immortality with true fully autonomous replicas by 2029, was complimented by the recent updated Replica studio. Now choose a Replica for work or a personal persona. Then evolve it over time by training your digital twin with text, pictures and videos.
Dan Thomson recognises facing huge ethical challenges in this field. But having the possibility for revolutionary care is worth solving those issues.
5 Memorialisation Morsels
Quick bites of #Deathtech #DigitalImmortality #LifeStory news:
Celebrities Watching Their Own Funerals - Intriguing TV? Channel 4 launches Celebrity Send-Off. In conjunction with Co-op Funeralcare, a national UK funeral services provider, the show asks famous people how they would like to be memorialised. (via Anna Walker the conversation.com)
The Ethical Debate of the Privacy of the Dead - The Afterlife of Data: Who Controls Our Digital Legacy? The Billion-Dollar Battle for Your Data Beyond the Grave. (via Caroline Carruthers on informationweek.com)
EU's Landmark AI Act Takes Effect: Tech Giants Face Tough Changes - New Law Introduces Strict Regulations and Heavy Fines for AI Development, Targeting U.S. Tech Companies and Reshaping the Global AI Landscape. (via CNBC)
No One Is Ready for Digital Immortality. If your partner asked you, ‘Would you want to digitally resurrect me as an AI Avatar if I die first?’ What would you answer? (via Kate Lindsay The Atlantic)
Farewelling- An Academic Investigation. PhD student and Marie Curie nurse Sarah Stanley on the problems of ‘second loss’ and digital legacy in palliative care. (via Liverpool John Moores University)
The Digital Edition Life Story Writing Prompts.
This is new for the re-launch. Encouraging you to make sure your digital legacy includes stories from you life. So, grab a coffee and your journal and ponder these life-story writing questions.
Would you create a digital avatar of yourself to interact with future generations?
If your digital twin could convey one core value or life philosophy to future generations, what would it be and why?
What life changing moments or decisions would you want your digital twin to be able to discuss, and what insights would you hope your descendants gain from these stories?
If your digital twin could recount one pivotal conversation that changed the course of your life, what would it be, who was it with, and why do you consider it so influential?
How would you want your digital twin to describe the role of mentors in your life? What specific guidance from them would you want passed on to your descendants?
Heard of a startup in #Deathtech? Please let me know.
Until the next edition of The Art of Memorialising, thanks for reading!
Pete
PS: Whether we're discussing digital memorials or pen-and-paper memoirs, remember: your story matters. Let's make sure it's told, preserved, and cherished for your generations to come.