2018: Immortality is Available Now ~ And it’s Not as Science Fiction Predicted

From 2018.

Immortality is Available Now – and it’s Not as Science Fiction Predicted

Author Marie Johnson. Published in Medium. 5 January 2018.

Over the past few decades, technology innovation has closed the gap on science fiction prediction – now we’ve passed it. Conversations spanning lifetimes are an unexpected but exciting consequence of digital disruption. It’s time to contemplate the immortality economy.

Science fiction is awash with stories of humans living forever.

Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein 1950s) owed his longevity to biology; a selective breeding experiment.

The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarkes also 1950's) introduces mind uploading to a central computer; a technical solution to immortality.

According to the media, both populist and scientific, science is unlikely to achieve either of these, human immortality by biology or consciousness computer upload, for decades if not centuries.

However, there is another way, and it is available now — in 2018.

But first, there are two main reasons for wanting longevity or immortality — egotism or altruism.

Some want to live forever because they want to continue to enjoy life. They don’t see death as reward for a life of toil but as an impediment to them continuing to enjoy their riches. Certainly, many science fiction stories focus on immortality for the wealthy and powerful; the poor invariably cannot afford either the required medical treatments or technology resources.

Others should live forever because of the contribution they have, and can continue to make, to society. For those who haven’t seen it before watch The Crazy Ones, Apple’s 1997 Think Different advertising video narrated by Steve Jobs himself, that gives an insight into some of those we have lost that might continue to benefit us.

Egotistic immortality ideally requires either the biological or consciousness upload solutions of science fiction to work; the wealthy and powerful want to be able to continue a hedonistic lifestyle in either a real or artificial environment.

Altrusitic immortality simply requires a way to preserve, or even grow, the experience, thoughts and patterns of thinking of a valued individual in a way that enables future generations to converse with this individual as if they were still alive. In the absence of a viable biological solution this must be achieved using technology.

Fortunately, we have a way of achieving egotistic and altruistic immortality now. This is in the form of so called ‘digital humans’.

I define a digital human as a construct of technology and co-design process that, when interacting with a human over an electronic medium, would easily pass the Turing Test.

Nadia, the world’s first true digital human, did not represent a real person (for example her persona and personality were created through co-design), but the major components and methodologies could be the same when digitally preserving an individual human, their personality and knowledge, their experiences and memories.

The technology components of varying sophistication and fidelity exist today. The digital human or avatar technology varies, with some companies creating high definition digital humans requiring GPU (graphical processing unit) power — which was the case with Nadia. A higher definition higher fidelity digital human will achieve a more emotional connection with the real human interacting with it. Other companies offer lower-fidelty digital humans which would make them accessible on smart phones. In any case, the advances in chip technology such as neuromorphic technology combined with 5G may soon make the smartphone the universal interface for digital humans regardless of their fidelity and definition.

Other components comprising the technology stack include an AI platform and in sophisticated offerings, advanced neural networks. From an AI platform perspective, this is not about a simple chatbot driving questions and answers — chatbots are not digital humans. In my experience, the AI platform to support digital immortality must provide cognitive contextual conversations as this will shape and be a foundation of the personality of the digital human.

And it is co-design that breathes life into the digital human. The process of co-design — almost completely overlooked by commentators — is really the process of creation.

Co-design involves the creation of the persona: the personality; looks; mannerisms; multi-source information capture to populate the AI corpus; a conversational model that is shaped by the personality; and psychologists and community co-designers to train the digital human and grow its knowledge. Layers of context and embodiment to achieve a contextual human experience.

Co-design is not a one-off process — it is ongoing — replicating how the real environment and real world continuously shape real humans. Just like how our personality shapes how we interpret that experience, expert psychologists are an essential part of the co-design process to shape the personality of the digital human. This innovation in co-design provides insight into how digital humans can be created to achieve digital immortality.

Whilst instantaneous consciousness download is not yet possible, real time and retrospective capture of thoughts, actions and images certainly is: we are doing it now through our writings, videos, photographs, social media interactions and so on.

There is both a first-person perspective, what we think and say, and a third person perspective, what others think and say about us.

Another science fiction novel, To Live Again (Robert Silverberg 1960s), describes an entire worldwide economy based on the buying and selling of “souls” (personas that have been tape-recorded at six-month intervals), that can be downloaded into the minds of buyers so that they can live the experiences themselves.

We can’t download these recordings into humans with existing science but we can download them into a digital medium. This is already happening now: people are recording exciting first person live action through devices such as GoPro and others, including people with disability, can then experience these through virtual reality.

I see a near future where such experiences are purchased to enhance the life of an egotistic digital human before, or after, creation.

This obviously sits on the egotistic side of immortality but it has important implications for the altruistic.

By using co-design to assemble everything said and written by Steve Jobs for example, everything said and recorded about him, interviewing those who knew him well, and applying the appropriate psychological insights, a digital human could be constructed to guide future generations. Or at least those using Apple, his estate might not want a Steve Jobs Digital Human running on Android!

It would be an interesting intellectual exercise to debate who of society’s notables should be preserved. But there is perhaps a more urgent application of digital humans.

Many Indigenous cultures orally pass on wisdom and knowledge gained through hard experience and centuries of thought and debate. Preservation in written or even video form doesn’t allow a conservation to take place; and it is only through conservations that the young can build their cultural knowledge and understanding by interacting with their elders, past and present.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, the co-design process would allow the knowledge of one elder to be augmented by the knowledge of other elders with different memories and perspectives. This could fill in gaps where memory has already faded through age, or where some experiences weren’t lived by the human being ‘digitised’. Another important aspect of co-design is the development of questions and answers in a contextual conversation framework. Beyond simple questions and answers, it is the conversation that conveys meaning and insight. Such an activity could be a wonderful way for Indigenous youth to engage with their past elders whilst shaping their own future.

I have already written about the conversation economy and how it will explode across the globe in all sectors. Digital immortality extends the conversation economy across lifetimes, starting now.

Just imagine the many new “jobs” and skills that will be required: “My Life Director”, “Experience Procurers”, “Experience Creators” and “Digital Human Personality Coaches”.

Digital immortality is beyond the concept of “archives”. For cultures where traditions and meaning are passed through story-telling, it enables the young to have conversations with past elders. And significantly, it enables elders to tell their stories and have conversations with future generations.

And wouldn’t we all want this? Forget the “letter to my 15 year old self”, I want a “conversation with my 15 year old self”.

Whether altruistic or egotistic, why should memories shared through conversations be limited to one lifetime.

This is not science fiction. Immortality is here now.