I've just received in my mailbox an advertisement for something that seems to me really creepy.
I suppose the next step will be animations that can talk, using a person's digital heritage as a basis for synthetic speech. It wouldn't work for your ancestors but it might for that beloved teenage child killed in a road accident. Nobody would really die any more because you could always bring them back.

Nah! I think it's a horrible idea.

Didn't I pick up in "QI" there's a company offering webcams in the coffins?

Very creepy indeed. Probably a way to get participants to help improve the program/AI. This will create many problems going forward as it will be possible to digitally make it seem that people said things or did things that they did not say or do. https://www.ted.com/talks/supasorn_s...uage=en#t-2063

This is also another addition to the bizarre "Death Photos" phenomenon during the 1800's and still even today, albeit less often. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36389581

Apple began playing with this technology when they started to add "movement" to photos taken on an iPhone or iPad.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207310
https://iphonephotographyschool.com/live-photos/


This might be what you were directly referring to:
https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/te...os-to-life-ai/

I agree on the creepy.

Just because you can do something with computers, doesn't mean you should do that thing.

Yeah, that's weird. Seems like a business model that won't last, but who knows? Weirder things seem to thrive.

Here's another objector: https://wildhunt.org/2021/03/leave-a...nanimated.html

That article's references to ancestor cults reminded me of the Roman version of deepfake, which was clearly quite compatible with their ancestor cult.

Any Roman who reached high rank (for example a consulship) would have a lifelike wax mask made, realistically coloured and attached to a suitably coloured wig so that it could go over someone's head like a bag. When a noble Roman died, actors would put on the masks of his ancestors and walk in the funeral procession.

As long as they have a Farcebooky account and tied to Instascam....it verifies them as "normal"

Why is it creepy? As animations go, they're not particularly animated, more like a quick Tic Tok. They are kind of like the death portraits taken where the deceased were propped up next to siblings as if they were still alive. Animations from death portraits, does sound creepy.

In the early days of photographers there were some who specialized in faking life in dead people, and photographing them with their relatives.

And Hazel is right about the Romans. That mask thing was not uncommon. The Romans had basically no philosophers and only seemed to think when otherwise there was no way out. But they were great managers. Look at what they left as remains - roads, aqueducts, even their legions and body armour.

Not for me, but if it brings comfort to anyone then it's fine by me.

Update: MyHeritage/Geni, one of the big family tree sites, has started doing this now. They call it LiveStory.
I never thought it would go mainstream so fast.

Personally I've never been one for family trees or past and tend to just think about the living and moving one.
That said this is one of those things I just think "leave it to the you people" -- I'm only in my 40's but There's a lot of tech being used I see no use for myself and some coming up I doubt I'll see but young adult today are so different who knows what they will want?

Doesn't Hogwarts School hold a patent on that?

I remember there was the Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella in 2012

https://youtu.be/uJE8pfPfVRo