Primary theme: Vulnerability and courage
Talk description
I want to talk about Death.
If there is one thing that has caused fear in every living creature from dawn of history to present day is death. Fear and pain are the basis for our self-preservation instincts but accepting our own mortality is so hard that we've created a whole set of "immortality systems" -national identities, art, religion, work and social structures- to delude ourselves (cf. Ernest Becker) and forget we're mortal.
However, as technology reshapes every corner of human relationships, the very concept of what it means to be dead is transformed too. The uncanny valley of afterlife will be soon paved by venture capital, with promises of online executors for your digital legacy, content creation to please your social audience in the hereafter and bots trained to mimic you for eternity (or at least until the startup's buyout/exit).
Are these eerie interactions bound to be creepy? Can they be tuned and provide therapeutic effects? Are our digital memories a faithful representation of ourselves? What kind of relationships could be built on top of these identities?
It's a difficult conversation for which I don't have all the answers, but I've many questions I'd love to share with you.
Learning objectives
- The current status of digital legacies and some possible evolution paths.
- The effects of software and digital identities on the concept of Death.
- The long-term implications of digital clones.
That's an interesting topic. I think there's some aspects of death you passed over in your summary: digital archeology and digital history. If we look through the legacy left behind by great minds of the past century, there's a great deal of correspondence, sketches, scribbles and drafts that give some insight on the personal life and work of historical figures. We are able to look at Leonardo's Da Vinci's sketchbooks, read the letters sent by Hernán Cortés to Charles V, and appreciate Dijkstra's accounts of attending boring conferences in godforsaken places.
If we were to discover a box with Gutenberg's personal correspondence, it would surely be put up for auction at Christies. We would have no qualms about privacy concerns, as the historical importance would surely override them.
This begs the question: at what point Steve Jobs' personal inbox will be auctioned? Will Tim Berners-Lee's harddrive will be explored by archeologists of the future? Will Ellon Musk's Facebook account be browsed by researchers? How do we prevent digital legacies being wiped out in today's volatile startup ecosystem?