Brilliant. I’m interested in the grief tech - I find grief that most human experience but I would hate to bypass it or numb it out. But I know so many who already do, with drugs and booze, that maybe it would be a benefit to temper the self destruction.
Digital twins perfect for those with terrible boundaries, who allow themselves to get manipulated. Hopefully they learn through examples of how their twin navigate. But also very lonely for some.
"Living with your echoes”. Another aspect of this is letting others live with your echoes when you are gone for good. Digital immortality apps (ig “You, only virtual)” are on the rise. By subscribing to them and agreeing to the use of our data, we can all create digital clones, crafted while we're still alive, built from our conversations and interactions with our closest companions. So that they can still chat with us though we are dead. Ah, I’ d rather be remembered.
You are always a thought-step ahead of me. Next week's post is about dealing with the digital clones of our loved ones! e.g.
:Wait, though. There’re a few things to consider before you rush off to sign up for your own legacy twin. These duplicates might make each survivor’s grief worse. People could keep talking with their dead, rather moving on to make new connections with the living.
In addition, legacy twins may become pests, interfering in the lives of people they barely knew or, even, in the lives of grand- and great-grandchildren born after they died.
And digital twins are stuck in time, no longer learning and adapting. Their views and cultural references are tied to a static database that will become increasingly out of date over time.
Even in their most futuristically perfect form, our digital twins may more tarnish our legacies than honor them. They hold promise, nonetheless, so the challenges they present deserve a closer look.
In case I don't get the Grief Tech post done soon, here's the sum paragraph of Deep Research doc--not over 100 billion pound industry!: Grief Tech Revolution: How AI Is Transforming Death and Loss in 2025
The artificial intelligence industry is fundamentally reshaping humanity's relationship with death,
loss, and immortality through sophisticated "grief tech" that enables conversations with the
deceased and digital preservation of consciousness. This rapidly evolving sector, now valued at over £100 billion globally,
spans from chatbots that simulate deceased loved ones to
services that attempt to create digital versions of human consciousness.
While these technologies offer unprecedented comfort to grieving individuals, they also raise profound questions about the nature of memory, identity, and what it means to truly die in the digital age.
The grief tech revolution represents more than technological innovation—it's a fundamental shift in how humans process loss, maintain connections with the deceased, and prepare for their own mortality.
COVID-19 accelerated adoption as people sought digital alternatives to traditional mourning rituals, while advances in AI language models made increasingly sophisticated posthumous
Yes--I have 2 more posts outlined, one on how our digital personas will change our ideas about our own death, and the other on "grief tech," the growing industry that uses digital representations to ease our pain at the loss of others. So your response suggests I'm on the right path! Thanks.
I find this truly terrifying.
I find the entire Mind Revolution terrifying! So I'm sublimating by researching and writing about it :)
Brilliant. I’m interested in the grief tech - I find grief that most human experience but I would hate to bypass it or numb it out. But I know so many who already do, with drugs and booze, that maybe it would be a benefit to temper the self destruction.
Digital twins perfect for those with terrible boundaries, who allow themselves to get manipulated. Hopefully they learn through examples of how their twin navigate. But also very lonely for some.
I'm trying to explore the boundary problem of digital twins in next week's post!
Great piece, Houston, thank you!
"Living with your echoes”. Another aspect of this is letting others live with your echoes when you are gone for good. Digital immortality apps (ig “You, only virtual)” are on the rise. By subscribing to them and agreeing to the use of our data, we can all create digital clones, crafted while we're still alive, built from our conversations and interactions with our closest companions. So that they can still chat with us though we are dead. Ah, I’ d rather be remembered.
You are always a thought-step ahead of me. Next week's post is about dealing with the digital clones of our loved ones! e.g.
:Wait, though. There’re a few things to consider before you rush off to sign up for your own legacy twin. These duplicates might make each survivor’s grief worse. People could keep talking with their dead, rather moving on to make new connections with the living.
In addition, legacy twins may become pests, interfering in the lives of people they barely knew or, even, in the lives of grand- and great-grandchildren born after they died.
And digital twins are stuck in time, no longer learning and adapting. Their views and cultural references are tied to a static database that will become increasingly out of date over time.
Even in their most futuristically perfect form, our digital twins may more tarnish our legacies than honor them. They hold promise, nonetheless, so the challenges they present deserve a closer look.
In case I don't get the Grief Tech post done soon, here's the sum paragraph of Deep Research doc--not over 100 billion pound industry!: Grief Tech Revolution: How AI Is Transforming Death and Loss in 2025
The artificial intelligence industry is fundamentally reshaping humanity's relationship with death,
loss, and immortality through sophisticated "grief tech" that enables conversations with the
deceased and digital preservation of consciousness. This rapidly evolving sector, now valued at over £100 billion globally,
spans from chatbots that simulate deceased loved ones to
services that attempt to create digital versions of human consciousness.
While these technologies offer unprecedented comfort to grieving individuals, they also raise profound questions about the nature of memory, identity, and what it means to truly die in the digital age.
The grief tech revolution represents more than technological innovation—it's a fundamental shift in how humans process loss, maintain connections with the deceased, and prepare for their own mortality.
COVID-19 accelerated adoption as people sought digital alternatives to traditional mourning rituals, while advances in AI language models made increasingly sophisticated posthumous
interactions possible.
Yes--I have 2 more posts outlined, one on how our digital personas will change our ideas about our own death, and the other on "grief tech," the growing industry that uses digital representations to ease our pain at the loss of others. So your response suggests I'm on the right path! Thanks.