A voice that will always live on

By: Alyssa Merhy

Memories are created on the daily. They can be as mundane as a typical workday. They

can be as frustrating as a traffic jam. They can be as emotional as a wedding day. They can be as

painful as losing a loved one.

Sharing memories is a central part of the human experience because stories bind people

together. Some of the most important memories and lessons are shared by family members. The

stories of different generations’ experiences have the ability to educate, to warn and to inspire.

Death is a pesky inevitability that intrudes on memories. For death stops the creation of

additional memories and stops memories from being shared. Or so it was thought.

Eternime and HereAfter are companies that seek to virtually preserve a person’s most

important memories for their relatives and future generations. Life advice can be given from

beyond the grave.

A digital version of a loved one is created by recording their life’s stories and utilizing

artificial intelligence such as technology from Amazon’s Alexa to create an interactive avatar.

The choice to pursue an immortality of sorts and continue interacting with the living has

a longstanding history in religious contexts but can have psychological and ethical implications.

Permanently virtualizing individuals is a new method that individuals can use to preserve their

legacy and memories.

Lynn Huber is a professor of religious studies at Elon University, she teaches courses

ranging from biblical studies to interactions with Satan. Huber said society has always attempted

to connect with the dead. The dead can offer wisdom in both religious and historical traditions.
 “In Christian traditions there is this long history of what they call a ‘cloud of witnesses’,”

Huber said. “When people pass away Christians have this belief that they don’t really pass away.

Their bodies may die but in some sense they are still present in spirit.”

Spirits are said to support loved ones’ faith and offer guidance. Huber explained that

deceased loved ones are able to advocate for the family they left to God, Jesus or Mother Mary.

Moreover, in Catholicism saints are people who lived holy lives and once they die they

are able to offer wisdom from heaven. Therefore when Catholics pray to saints they strive to

speak with the deceased.

Throughout history, rituals have also attempted to gain wisdom from the dead. For

example,​ ​when a family member dies, people have attempted to host a s​é​ance, visit a

psychic-medium or use a Ouija board.

“People have this desire for technology through which they can contact the dead,” Huber

said. Huber likened Eternime and HereAfter to simply be “a new platform.”

The attempt to speak and gain wisdom from those who have died is not a revolutionary

idea. Rather, the revolutionary idea of Eternime and HereAfter is to employ new technology

inspired by Amazon’s Alexa to simulate interactions with the departed.

With a new opportunity to foster a connection with the deceased comes psychological

and ethical caveats. Dr. Bilal Ghandour, psychologist and Elon professor, said that the ability to

interact with digital avatars of the deceased could impact the grieving process.

When someone dies their family and friends typically struggle to comprehend that an

individual is truly gone.

 “After the death of a loved one there is a period of feeling depressed, but naturally so,”

Ghandour said. “They can partly detachment from society in general, and partly seeking support

from others. A sort of combination of both those things.”

The technology from Eternmie and HereAfter creates a new territory where a person’s

presence won’t be lost forever so suddenly.

“It is very hard to imagine how you can distinguish between life and death, if you have

the ability to interact with someone so directly,” Ghandour said.

At the beginning of the grieving process many struggle to discuss memories of their

loved ones. Pain can occur while watching old videos, looking through old photographs or telling

the dead person’s stories. A digital avatar that facilitates interactions that create the feeling of the

loved one being there could be too much to handle, Ghandour said.

“Intellectually you can reason that this is not real, but emotionally you get attached to

what you are seeing,” Ghandour said. “You can imagine someone attaching to it too much.”

In the Buddhist tradition an important way to aspect in maintaining a healthy and

accurate perspective on the world is to practice detachment. Buddhists aim to overcome

attachments to a variety of things ranging from tangible objects, to one’s self-image or even

memories, said Dr. Pamela Winfield a professor of religious studies specializing in East Asia.

The idea of continued interaction with a virtual avatar representing someone who has

passed away could be seen as an example of attachment and an unnecessary cling to the past. It

is important to be grateful for the past but living in the present is crucial, Winfield said.

Huber lost her mother over 20 years ago and her father last year. She said she grieves her

parents differently and feels various levels of pain about their deaths.
 Huber still calls her father’s voicemail on occasion as a source of comfort. A virtual

avatar that mimics her father would not be the best solution for her grief, “I want the memory of

my dad, but I don’t necessarily think this technology would be accurate,” Huber said.

Bereavement can last for varied lengths of time. Huber said that her mother's passing was

initially very traumatic, but now, many years later, she finds comfort in the distance of the

memories.

“There was a period of time when I was very connected to my mother’s memory,” Huber

said. “And now I’m not as much. In some sense it is a little freeing to not have that memory.”

The passage of time allows for healing. Individuals would be better to interact with the

memories of their loved ones who have passed years earlier, Ghandour said. Thus the ability to

keep one’s legacy through technology for future generations who would never have had the

chance to know their distant relatives could be an interesting opportunity.

“Many people would love to know something about their relatives from 250 years ago

because we don’t have this emotional attachment, so any kind of information about them in a

way like this feels good,” Ghandour said.

The value of learning lessons from respected elders dates back to China’s Confucian

traditions.

One important aspect of Confucianism is “The virtue of filial piety which is a fancy name

for respecting your elders,” Winfield said. “Just because they die doesn’t mean you stop

respecting them. So you continue to commemorate and learn from them after they are dead.”
 Traditionally, filial piety is practiced with a variety of rituals that seek to honor the legacy

of ones’ parents and ancestors. Winfield said that this new technology could present the chance

for future generations to learn from and respect their relatives who have died.

The theory of diffusion of innovations hypothesizes the speed or rate that a new

technology, product or idea will be adopted. The first group to test a new product are considered

the innovators and early adopters, and eventually the idea diffuses through all of society.

The 45,709 people who have signed up for Eternime and those seeking to join

HereAfter’s waiting list are early adopters. Even though there is not a clear precedent regarding

the implications of virtual immorality these early adopters are willing to experiment.

Any preparation for death is multifaceted because people seek to preserve their legacy

and leave their families comfortably. The way they decide to do this can be based on various

religious, ethical and psychological beliefs. In the end, what one leaves behind and how a family

decides to safeguard the memory is deeply personal but new increases in technology will surely

add new methods.