In a recent post I wrote about how we will live forever through bots and AI in the near future. I discuss how several technologies are advancing that will allow this to happen. There have been many fictional stories that have explored this premise and recently I discovered an eight episode podcast series called LifeAfter and was produced by Slate’s Panopoly for the GE Podcast Theater.
According to this article on Fast Company, the team behind the series describes it as “Her meets Ex Machina” and FC continues by stating that it’s “…pondering the question of what happens to our digital identities after we pass, and what role AI can play in the grieving process.” The story takes a dark look at the future along those lines. This series would also make for a great episode of Black Mirror (now on Netflix) which is another great series that takes a dystopian look at the future.
Without giving too much away, the story is based on the premise of a social network that uses audio recordings as it’s method of communication and one aspect of the plot is based around how those recordings manifest themselves via an AI bot after a character in the story dies. If this sounds intriguing I highly recommend giving it a list. I found it to be enthralling. I’m sure we will begin to see many more stories that continue to show how technology will impact our future with many of them coming to fruition sooner than later.
