This year has seen both artificial intelligence (AI) along with bots dominate tech news based on the advancements that have been taking place in both areas. We’re just beginning to see the possibilities and implications that both of these technologies will bring in our near futures. People have been contemplating ways to leverage these technologies for creating a presence for people that have died long before they began dominating the news.
Several years ago I discovered Lifenaut and found myself intrigued and imagining a future where a digital version of myself would exist long after I died. The service allows you to upload documents, photos, videos, additional data as well as connect to your social accounts. Then you can help organize this data by creating timelines and tagging the information to help build a biography of your life. This information can then be brought to life in the form of a digital avatar you create based on a personal photograph and a conversational bot.
Black Mirror is a great fictional series that delves into futuristic concepts which had an episode that featured a service similarly to Lifenaut which provided an artificial version of a person that had died. They took it to the next level by creating a robot that embodied the artificial person and delved into the human implications that revolved around that as well. Here’s a link to the episode on Netflix.
Strangely enough the founder of Lifenaut, Dr. Martine Rothblatt, commissioned a robotics company to create Bina48, a social robot powered by some enhancements to the technologies used to create the avatars in the Lifenaut service. Below is a video and some more background of Bina48.
Last week we learned about the touching story of Russian engineer Eugenia Kuyda whose best friend Roman Mazurenko recently died. Eugenia who is the co-founder of an AI startup and leveraged the technology to develop a project in which she took all of Roman’s text messages to create a chatbot. This provides another example of how we’re starting to think about ways that can in some way allow some form of ourselves to be immortal based on the digital legacy we leave behind that will be leveraged in many interesting ways in the future.
Update: Bloomberg TV conducted an interview with Eugenia Kuyda on 10/19 and below is a video of the interview
If you want to explore this topic further I recommend you watch this wonderful BBC special Rest in Pixels: How To Live Forever. It provides more details around the topics in this post including Bina48, Lifenaut, the Black Mirror episode, as well as other stories regarding how digital legacy will impact our lives in the future.
We Will Live Forever Through Bots and AI in the Near Future lifestreamblog.com/we-will-live-f… via @krynsky
We Will Live Forever Through Bots and AI in the Near Future lifestreamblog.com/we-will-live-f…
Here is this week’s edition of meshedsociety.com weekly, loaded with thoughtful opinion pieces, interesting analyses and significant yet under-reported information bits from the digital and technology world. Published and annotated every Thursday (CET), just in time so you have something good to read over the weekend.
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War Goes Viral (3)
A must read about how social media is changing warfare. Basically, everyone who takes stances on current conflicts online or who just shares news about them is participating in the new type of warfare.
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Small Optimizations (3)
Very smart ideas and observations regarding characteristics of systems thinking.
What $50 Buys You at Huaqiangbei, the World’s Most Fascinating Electronic Market (3)
Entertaining and highly informative even if you are not a gadget freak.
Horrified by Trump, Silicon Valley Leaders Debate Cutting Ties to Peter Thiel (1)
As much as I try to counter my own initial gut feeling, I still end up thinking that Y Combinator should not work with a business partner who actively supports a reckless, characteristically extremely flawed and unpredictable demagogue such as Donald Trump (here is an unsettling historical analogy by the way). Especially if this business partner is a powerful billionaire who knows very well what he is doing. It damages the YC brand.
Pixel, iPhone 7, and grading on a curve (2)
Google now has its own very expensive high-end smartphone for those who want something which looks, feels and costs like an iPhone but is not from Apple.
Tesla’s big bet: $8,000 worth of self-driving hardware in all new cars — before the software is ready (2)
Look at the title and you understand what makes Tesla such a significant player. Once the full self-driving capabilities are there, the company will also launch a ridesharing network – owners of supported Tesla cars will be prohibited to send them alone onto the road to earn money with competing services such as Uber or Lyft. That’s kind of a bold move with potential to backfire.
Link Analysis and Structure of the web (1)
Turns out that the structure of the web can be compared to a bow tie. It does make more sense if you look at the illustration shown here.
Finland: The land of five thousand Megabytes (1)
A few statistics and graphs detailing how mobile data traffic consumption is developing in a country such as Finland where operators offer unlimited data.
A Generation of False Entrepreneurs (2)
Hard to argue that enterpreneurship has become so trendy (in California at least) that a lot of people are creating companies who shouldn’t. However, I still think this is better than the other scenario, in which too few are becoming entrepreneurs.
Did trolls cost Twitter $3.5bn and its sale? (2)
I would not be surprised. No company wants to deal with the kind of toxic elements that loiter on Twitter and that justify their unbearable behaviour with the free speech principles that of course are, in general, a very essential part of the Twitter experience. If Twitter would end its defense of free speech, this would send the company down a rabbit hole of censorship, eventually killing it. Twitter without the free speech principles wouldn’t be Twitter anymore. Twitter with the free speech principles is heavily limited in its potential by trolls and extremists. It’s a catch 22.
We Will Live Forever Through Bots and AI in the Near Future (1)
Considering the progress in the field of deep learning and machine reading, the claim made here is not far-fetched.
WeChat made a drone that flies around and streams video to your friends (1)
This is actually kind of a no-brainer. Social networks that extend their services to dedicated hardware devices.
Celebrities’ endorsement earnings on social media (1)
Overview of how much money influencers earn for commercial endorsements on various social media platforms. YouTube is the most lucrative channel.
The IT Era and the Internet Revolution (2)
Ben Thompson is pretty skilled at writing analytical pieces which lack a clear focus but nevertheless (or maybe because of it) animate you to look at a bigger picture from different angels. This is such a piece.
Want to Know Julian Assange’s Endgame? He Told You a Decade Ago (1)
Interesting philosophy: Afraid of leaks, organizations have to either pay a heavy secrecy tax or reduce their levels of abuse or dishonesty. Sounds great in theory but for the moment, with the current dynamics of human cooperation and communication, I am not optimistic that a such a level of radical transparency can work (without massive negative side effects). I do not think that humanity is ready for a world without secrets and I am not sure if it ever will be.
How Russia Pulled Off the Biggest Election Hack in U.S. History (3)
When politics and propaganda meet sweeping technological disruption.
Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo Cars, and the Future of the World (3)
Possibly the world’s most tech savvy political leader right now, who really grasps the challenges (and possibilities) ahead. A pitty that he’ll hand over power to someone much less suited for the digital age.
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A road trip with a Tesla: Being part of the futureI had the chance to do a little road trip with a Tesla Model S. First time ever that I drove an electrical car. Here is my verdict.
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California, 1987: San Junipero is a fun-loving beach town synonymous with sun, surf, and sex. And for recent arrivals Yorkie and Kelly, it’s going to be a life-changer…When I came back from a friend’s wedding in the lake district (massive congrats to them both). I decided to keep the weekend quite free before the weekend of Mozfest. As I was mainly relaxing I decided to do Black Mirror season 3 in one long evening.
I got to episode 4 and couldn’t help but be blown away. So much that it played on the mind and I had to watch it again.
Spoilers beyond this point! You were warned!
San Junipero doesn’t feel anything like a black mirror episode. First of all its set in the 80’s and on first watch I was questioning if I missed something? Maybe instead of looking at my laptop, I should rewind and watch it without it? Nope I kept going and felt a little confused when the timeline jumped forward in time. It reminded me of the start of inception when you know there’s something missing but racking your brain to understand what it could be.
The best thing about the episode is it’s a love story and really well told. It feels like a step up from most other black mirrors and shows the american influence of Netflix wasn’t all bad.
It was touching then when you realise the gravity of the situation (or even simulation) you are watching unfold, you can’t help but feel touched by what is happening in front of you.
My parents are getting older and as I watch them grow older, I do wish life could be a little easier in there later years. They sometimes cling to an older times when things were simpler in their minds. It’s nostalgia but the ability to live on forever does raise too many questions like when you finally want to leave or end it?
The parallels between the Vanilla Sky and Matrix will be made, but the love story really is so much stronger (no offense to Neo & Trinity). It’s no wonder Wired voted it the best of season 3.
It certainly sticks with you and reminded me Mark Krynsky’s blog and of course some of the thoughts that we are living in a stimulation already by Elon Musk.
The decision to live in the virtual world forever is something really interesting, unlike Vanilla Sky and the Matrix. Participation in the virtual world is conscious (as such) the loving couple comment even comment on the fact they are aware (also as such) of where they are. This is something which adds to the confusion at the very start, the very first time you watch it. Theres no secret, everybody knows.
Charlie Brooker also raises a few smaller questions about the trail period nature of the virtual world. If the world you will spend the rest of your life (as such) within comes with a cost, how do you pay? What do you need to pay for it? When does it end?
Honestly the philosophical questions are vast but most of all, blackmirror season 3 episode 4 is simply beautiful.
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Author: cubicgarden
Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser.
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If any of your readers are interested in chatting with Bina48 themselves, they may through her twitter account: https://twitter.com/iBina48
We Will Live Forever Through Bots and AI in the Near Future #robots, #robotics #ai #artificialintelligence lifestreamblog.com/we-will-live-f…
Pretty neat that we are so close to making lifelike #Clones #robotics #tech #technology #Pixels #robots #bigdata lifestreamblog.com/we-will-live-f…
We Will Live Forever Through Bots and AI in the Near Future #ai #artificialintelligence lifestreamblog.com/we-will-live-f…
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