Imagine there was a program that could collect your memories, collect your digital footprint using social media, and then use a series of algorithms to recreate your personality in digital form. Now imagine that you’re not imagining. Imagine that thing is real.
A new project at MIT University in the states is attempting to do this. For real. A new project has been revealed that plans to collect information, use “complex artificial intelligence algorithms” to disseminate that information, and then use that information to create an experience that is being advertised as a “Skype chat from the past”.
The project is called ‘Eterni.me’.
“The idea behind Eterni.me is to build an alter-ego from your lifetime digital footprint and offer an immersive interaction with it during and after your life,” a spokesperson said. “[It is] your eternal interactive legacy for your descendants.”
It sounds eerily (and precisely) like an episode of Black Mirror. In that episode a woman’s significant other dies, and the woman orders a clone of her husband with an implanted version of his personality as accumulated by decades of social media use. Creepy.
But the folks behind Eterni.me claim this won’t be creepy.
“[W]e’re not creating a digital clone or anything creepy, but an interface for accessing memories,” the spokesperson claimed. “And we’re not even targeting the relatives of loved ones in the beginning, but people who want to preserve their digital memories for their family and for eternity.”
1500 people have signed up already.
New project will allow users to live forever as virtual avatar [ItProPortal]
Comments
17 responses to “MIT Wants To Create A ‘Virtual You’, So You Can Live Forever”
But will I have to have sex with Joaquin Phoenix?
Well, it may help you relive it… Is that an experience that is currently represented by your “lifetime digital footprint”?
I mean it’s interchangeable between him or Ryan Gosling.
But with Gosling it’s a lot more cuddling and maybe quiet reading in bed?
I read the title as saying MTV was doing this and was really confused.
Also, Caprica.
Can anyone say Master Reboot?
The best way to change the future is to re-write history. What’s to stop our “Digital Legacy Memory Ghosts” from being forged or hacked to misrepresent us? ( It’s just a thought. It’s more people living in the virtual rather than the reality IMO) The only true way to live forever is to make an honest impact and make lasting memories in peoples lives while you where alive.
Im hopefully getting a robot body after 2025……..if that does not pan out for whatever reason I guess this is a good second option………
While that sounds cool, people should be a little disturbed that such a complete picture of you can be built through your social media usage. Even more so by the fact that there are already agencies, organisations and individuals out there using your data to either find out more about you or track you. While some of it is good, such as tracking epidemics, detecting natural disasters faster, and recognising suicidal or destructive intent, it’s easily abused as well for things like stalking people through where you post from, finding out where you live (doxing uses social media a lot) and finding out who you’re associating with.
The thought of having a me that can stand in when I’m not around is cool. There are so many times it would have been handy to have something that thinks like me able to answer questions and problems other people have. (Such as when I’m not at work and stuff) However, that also means that other people also have a virtual copy of me they can use for the next level of identity fraud.
Also the virtual you would work cheaper and you could be fired to cut costs…
Anyone else seen the trailer for Johnny Depp’s new film coming out called “Transcendence”? this is pretty much what happens.
What a horrible concept. The idea of living forever is awful, I’m not exactly happy that I’ve lived as long as I have now. And the very thought of interacting with my past self?? That guy was even more of an arsehole than I am now!
As a side note, I very nearly bought Black Mirror yesterday, had the DVD in my hand and everything but didn’t quite want to spend the last scraps of my money on it, even for Charlie Brooker who’s always a winner.
If i get a robot body like Caine for Robocop 2….sign me up!
NUKE FOR EVERYONE!!!
This is pretty much the only social media I use, so mine would be just trite and narky gaming comments really.
Yes this was the exact plot of Caprica actually.
The fundamental issue with this is what goes on in my head and makes me ‘me’, never makes it online so it would just be a cardboard cutout more or less with the same personality depth.
Immortal Internet troll personas with full creeper access…um no thanks.
I’m actually pretty careful about what I put into my social media feeds. My enterni thingy wouldn’t have had a girlfriend for like seven years, would be obsessed with a half dozen web comics and would be the world’s hugest game nerd.
Because everyone acts the same on the internet as they do in real life. All this will do is create an eternal legion of racist, misogynist, sexist, narcissistic, sadist assholes to interact with for life. This post is living proof of that. I’m not really this big of an asshole in real life, it’s just easier for people to act like assholes from the safety of behind a screen and keyboard.
Just call it what it is… an Animus.
Black Mirror