Originally posted by Marc Tavares on February 10, 2019
After posting a resource about the digital afterlife a few weeks ago, I decided to explore the concept further for this assignment. I’m fascinated by how people grieve, mourn, and interact with deceased loved ones through their digital devices. The significant amount of data we create daily combined with technology enabled by AI and machine learning, provide further capabilities for interacting with the dead.
Please use your mobile device to view my project at https://www.marctavares.com/digitalafterlife/
I designed it mobile-first using the open-source presentation framework reveal.js. Reveal.js also has a graphical builder at slides.com for anyone that prefers a visual interface. I tried something a little bit different so I hope you enjoy it.
A list of references and research I consulted can be viewed here:
http://marctavares.com/digitalafterlife/TavaresA1_ETEC523_References.pdf
I was definitely going to post this one if you hadn’t already, as Marc’s statement of fascination regarding grieving and interacting with passed loved ones is something I find quite interesting. The idea of people needing to contact Facebook on behalf of their deceased relatives in order to deactivate their accounts, and how different people handle that situation, gives insight into how people use technology to mourn.
Going through Marc’s OER though, there was so much focus on AI and the potential to have artificial versions of people that I’m really not a fan of. I was hoping there would be a further exploration of the current ways in which mobile technology helps us mourn, rather than looking so much at what the future might hold in terms of digital replicas (which I personally would not welcome with open arms). At the same time, that hologram of Tupac from a few years back was pretty sweet…
With the proliferation of smartphones and internet access, people are posting more and more about their lives. Some even say that post it or it didn’t happen. It is interesting to consider the legacy of this mobile social media culture beyond our lifetime. Marc’s OER on Digital Afterlife was absolutely fascinating to me! It made me reflect on the impact and legacy of my digital footprint on social media. The concept of augmented eternity (using digital footprint and AI to create digital replicas of the dead) is also very thought provoking, but I started to question whether how similar digital replicas would be. Although the potential educational applications of communicating with great minds (or their digital replicas) sounds amazing to me, I agree with Marc that there are ethical implications of bringing someone back digitally that makes the idea impractical. What do you think about the education applications about augmented eternity? Would you want to be able to interact with a digital version of a deceased loved one?