Unanswered questions, unspoken thoughts, and unexpressed feelings.
There's always some thing unsaid when death comes. But the digital world is slowly changing the perspective of death by piggybacking on the philosophical belief that `one never really dies but just leaves.' Whether it is an emotional message for your children or a replica of your thoughts, some websites, apps and `thought-copiers' have made it possible for you to leave behind a part of your `self' after you die, assuring you a `sense of digital immortality.'
Imagine receiving an emotional message on your wedding day from your grandmother, who died 15 years ago. HDFC Life, for instance, recently launched 'Memories for Life', which allows you to either record a short video or make a scrapbook of photographs. After completion, the user can share the content immediately or in future.
Other applications like Afternote, Rememberme and SafeBeyond are helping people ease the path to closure through messages for their loved ones, to be viewed only after their death. "It gives you a chance to be part of your loved ones' lives forever through digital platforms. It is important as you don't know if you'll be there for the big moments of their life," says Moran Zur, founder & CEO, SafeBeyond.
Established last year, the platform also provides users the opportunity to leave messages tailored for occasions like birthdays and weddings. They could be location-specific notes.
Users are required to assign a trustee(s) who will inform the site of their demise. Once notified, the site will send messages like e-mail passwords, stored for the digital heirs -- on the mentioned dates. The idea developed when Zur lost his father to cancer and missed him at his wedding. But work began after his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012. "The concept is well-received in India which embraces strong family bonds," says Zur, whose site receives the second biggest traffic from the country , with more than 1,500 users.
Acting as your 'emotional life insurance', psychologists say these messages can assist in the grieving process. "It is a good way for the family to cope with loss. In grief resolution therapy, we advise patients to see old pictures of the deceased as it is a cathartic process," says Dr Keerthi Pai, clinical psychologist, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.
Apart from its emotional purpose, these platforms act as safety vaults for digital assets like data on social media networks, and scanned documents. It can also be used to advice future company heirs. "To me, it's like a digital capsule with my data and memories, which my loved ones can access without scrambling for it," says Tekin Roads managing partner Lathika Pai, a Bengaluru-based user of SafeBeyond.
But these tools are a double-edged sword. While security of messages is promised through encryption, legal issues come into the picture. "If the data saved on a cloud is considered a property, it is advisable for users to state this in their will to ensure it doesn't fall into unscrupulous hands," says Avinash Wadwani a lawyer at Madras high court. " Also, the Indian Succession Act hasn't been amended since 1925 and hence, doesn't the law doesn't recognize digitalization of legacies," says Wadwani. "But it can be amended to incorporate this possibility."
People are also working towards immortalizing themselves by making a digital copy of their personality. For instance, the 2045 initiative by Russian businessman Dmitry Itskov hopes to develop devices which can transfer an individual's personality to a robot or computer. The initiative plans to come up with a hologram-like avatar by 2045. Another such concept is ETER9, a social network platform founded by Portuguese Henrique Jorge, which relies on artificial intelligence as its main element. It gives people a chance to create a virtual self which will learn more about them through their interactions on the platform, then post on the network in the person's absence.
While both these projects are in their preliminary stages, the topic is being widely debated. "One needs to understand what making a replica means --whether it is only the brain and the physical body, or a more abstract entity," says professor Deepak Khemani, department of computer science & engineering, IIT Madras, who has done extensive research in artificial intelligence. He explains there are two ways a replica can be made. "We have to understand the physical structure of the brain and try to replicate that, hoping that a mind similar to the original will emerge. This makes it difficult as the brain has billions of neurons and their connections cannot be duplicated," says Khemani. "The second option is to understand what constitutes the mind and then make a replica. But today , we are still grappling with understanding the mind, which makes this implausible too."
There's always some thing unsaid when death comes. But the digital world is slowly changing the perspective of death by piggybacking on the philosophical belief that `one never really dies but just leaves.' Whether it is an emotional message for your children or a replica of your thoughts, some websites, apps and `thought-copiers' have made it possible for you to leave behind a part of your `self' after you die, assuring you a `sense of digital immortality.'
Imagine receiving an emotional message on your wedding day from your grandmother, who died 15 years ago. HDFC Life, for instance, recently launched 'Memories for Life', which allows you to either record a short video or make a scrapbook of photographs. After completion, the user can share the content immediately or in future.
Other applications like Afternote, Rememberme and SafeBeyond are helping people ease the path to closure through messages for their loved ones, to be viewed only after their death. "It gives you a chance to be part of your loved ones' lives forever through digital platforms. It is important as you don't know if you'll be there for the big moments of their life," says Moran Zur, founder & CEO, SafeBeyond.
Established last year, the platform also provides users the opportunity to leave messages tailored for occasions like birthdays and weddings. They could be location-specific notes.
Users are required to assign a trustee(s) who will inform the site of their demise. Once notified, the site will send messages like e-mail passwords, stored for the digital heirs -- on the mentioned dates. The idea developed when Zur lost his father to cancer and missed him at his wedding. But work began after his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012. "The concept is well-received in India which embraces strong family bonds," says Zur, whose site receives the second biggest traffic from the country , with more than 1,500 users.
Acting as your 'emotional life insurance', psychologists say these messages can assist in the grieving process. "It is a good way for the family to cope with loss. In grief resolution therapy, we advise patients to see old pictures of the deceased as it is a cathartic process," says Dr Keerthi Pai, clinical psychologist, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.
Apart from its emotional purpose, these platforms act as safety vaults for digital assets like data on social media networks, and scanned documents. It can also be used to advice future company heirs. "To me, it's like a digital capsule with my data and memories, which my loved ones can access without scrambling for it," says Tekin Roads managing partner Lathika Pai, a Bengaluru-based user of SafeBeyond.
But these tools are a double-edged sword. While security of messages is promised through encryption, legal issues come into the picture. "If the data saved on a cloud is considered a property, it is advisable for users to state this in their will to ensure it doesn't fall into unscrupulous hands," says Avinash Wadwani a lawyer at Madras high court. " Also, the Indian Succession Act hasn't been amended since 1925 and hence, doesn't the law doesn't recognize digitalization of legacies," says Wadwani. "But it can be amended to incorporate this possibility."
People are also working towards immortalizing themselves by making a digital copy of their personality. For instance, the 2045 initiative by Russian businessman Dmitry Itskov hopes to develop devices which can transfer an individual's personality to a robot or computer. The initiative plans to come up with a hologram-like avatar by 2045. Another such concept is ETER9, a social network platform founded by Portuguese Henrique Jorge, which relies on artificial intelligence as its main element. It gives people a chance to create a virtual self which will learn more about them through their interactions on the platform, then post on the network in the person's absence.
While both these projects are in their preliminary stages, the topic is being widely debated. "One needs to understand what making a replica means --whether it is only the brain and the physical body, or a more abstract entity," says professor Deepak Khemani, department of computer science & engineering, IIT Madras, who has done extensive research in artificial intelligence. He explains there are two ways a replica can be made. "We have to understand the physical structure of the brain and try to replicate that, hoping that a mind similar to the original will emerge. This makes it difficult as the brain has billions of neurons and their connections cannot be duplicated," says Khemani. "The second option is to understand what constitutes the mind and then make a replica. But today , we are still grappling with understanding the mind, which makes this implausible too."
Comments
Post a Comment