Presiding over your own funeral. Cool or Creepy?
Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 1:24 pm
The notion of communicating with others after death is not a new concept.
The whole idea of a WILL is to inform others of your wishes and intentions after you die and is by definition your final communication.
Video wills are also fairly commonplace, giving the dearly departed a chance to voice their final wishes as personally as possible.
We have seen this taken further in film.
In two different Superman films, Jor El communicated in real time with Kal El long after he perished on Krypton.
In the film Prometheus, Peter Weyland created an interactive holographic recreation of himself to communicate with the investigative team, also in real time.
In the film I, Robot, Dr Lanning created a hologram of himself to communicate but was somewhat limited in his responses to real time questions.
Given all of these examples is it strange to consider the idea of creating a CGI AI of one's self that would be present at one's funeral for the attendees to interact with?
Consider that an AI programmed with as much of your personal knowledge as possible and crafted to sound and behave like you is probably very possible given today's technology.
A realistic hologram might be a bit hard to pull off but an interactive video presentation of you that is programmed with facial recognition and is able to provide real time responses to questions based on a large personal database compiled by you during your life might be possible and is very likely probable.
Imagine attendees at your funeral are able to walk up to a large video screen and interact with a facsimile of you that largely sounds, moves and behaves very much like you did when you were alive.
Attendee: "Hey. Remember that day we got lost driving to Pittsburgh?"
Your AI: "Yes I do, I seem to remember you were the one that forgot the map."
And then your AI could literally preside over the rest of the ceremony, introducing the pastor and other speakers and adding personal comments about them.
I think the whole thing would be cool. I think the idea of being able to be in attendance at my own funeral is fascinating.
I suffer from social anxiety and the idea that an AI of myself would speak in my voice and mannerisms but also be able to convey my most heartfelt thoughts and feelings to the loved ones I have left behind is pretty awesome.
However I also know that for some people the concept would be horrifying, undignified and blasphemous. If I thought my family couldn't handle it I wouldn't do it. And frankly I don't know how I would react if I were attending a funeral of someone I loved and was confronted with such a thing.
If it became a THING, undoubtedly the first few times it was used would stir up controversy but if it became commonplace it could be expanded and developed further.
Let me say that this is a personal view. It is not intended to be offensive to those of you who might have recently suffered loss.
I'm still smarting from the reaction to my "The Divorce Ceremony" thread so I apologize in advance.
The whole idea of a WILL is to inform others of your wishes and intentions after you die and is by definition your final communication.
Video wills are also fairly commonplace, giving the dearly departed a chance to voice their final wishes as personally as possible.
We have seen this taken further in film.
In two different Superman films, Jor El communicated in real time with Kal El long after he perished on Krypton.
In the film Prometheus, Peter Weyland created an interactive holographic recreation of himself to communicate with the investigative team, also in real time.
In the film I, Robot, Dr Lanning created a hologram of himself to communicate but was somewhat limited in his responses to real time questions.
Given all of these examples is it strange to consider the idea of creating a CGI AI of one's self that would be present at one's funeral for the attendees to interact with?
Consider that an AI programmed with as much of your personal knowledge as possible and crafted to sound and behave like you is probably very possible given today's technology.
A realistic hologram might be a bit hard to pull off but an interactive video presentation of you that is programmed with facial recognition and is able to provide real time responses to questions based on a large personal database compiled by you during your life might be possible and is very likely probable.
Imagine attendees at your funeral are able to walk up to a large video screen and interact with a facsimile of you that largely sounds, moves and behaves very much like you did when you were alive.
Attendee: "Hey. Remember that day we got lost driving to Pittsburgh?"
Your AI: "Yes I do, I seem to remember you were the one that forgot the map."
And then your AI could literally preside over the rest of the ceremony, introducing the pastor and other speakers and adding personal comments about them.
I think the whole thing would be cool. I think the idea of being able to be in attendance at my own funeral is fascinating.
I suffer from social anxiety and the idea that an AI of myself would speak in my voice and mannerisms but also be able to convey my most heartfelt thoughts and feelings to the loved ones I have left behind is pretty awesome.
However I also know that for some people the concept would be horrifying, undignified and blasphemous. If I thought my family couldn't handle it I wouldn't do it. And frankly I don't know how I would react if I were attending a funeral of someone I loved and was confronted with such a thing.
If it became a THING, undoubtedly the first few times it was used would stir up controversy but if it became commonplace it could be expanded and developed further.
Let me say that this is a personal view. It is not intended to be offensive to those of you who might have recently suffered loss.
I'm still smarting from the reaction to my "The Divorce Ceremony" thread so I apologize in advance.
