Remembering, Reinvented

Digital means of capturing one’s essence prior to death are reframing our cultural understandings of what it means to be remembered. Hereafter.ai’s James Vlahos, seeking to capture his father’s personality and way of being in the world, is democratizing generative AI chatbots which seek to preserve an individual’s uniqueness prior to passing, leaving a product which can help but may also hinder the grieving process. But as he is keen to point out, it’s not a tool of emulation, it’s a tool of remembrance. A digital extension of what we culturally already do with old photographs. It’s remembering reinvented, he says.

As reporter Joanna Stern explains, there are two distinct parts to a digital legacy. The experiences a person wants to leave behind. And what the people who survive want (Stern, 2020). Lucy Watts, a woman diagnosed with a degenerative condition, knew her time was ending, and connected with Vlahos’ work through Stern’s reporting. Watts passed away in May 2023, but leaves a digital legacy as large as her personality, including a Hereafter voice chatbot. Lucy’s mother, prior to her passing, felt that interactive text and audio remembrance of Lucy would be welcome, but drew the line at video (Stern, 2020). In our non-reductive grief we still appeal to feelings of the departed being somewhere, despite the reductionist code of preserved digital essence (Shoemaker & Tobia, 2022). Even though the somewhere experienced is a remote server, we still feel the presence of an identity. A person we loved.

References:

Shoemaker, D. & Tobia, K. (2022). Personal Identity. In Vargas, M & Doris, J.M. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology. Oxford Handbooks. Retrieved from: https://doiorg.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198871712.013.28.

Stern, J. (2020). How Tech Can Bring Our Loved Ones to Life After They Die | WSJ. YouTube.com. [Digital Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwJEiI1T2M.

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