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Artist Proposes Small Robots with 3D-Printed Faces of Dead Relatives (koaa.com)
"In Japan, a robot may create a new way to mourn," reports one Colorado news team:
This robot is supposed to sound like a loved one. Now imagine the same robot having a 3D-printed mask of their face. You will be able to stay with that robot for 49 days which is the period of mourning after the funeral in Japan. That is the concept of Digital Shaman project, which uses a humanoid.
Users will have an interview with the artist while they're alive. Their physical characteristics and messages will be recorded then. After the user dies, the bereaved ones will be able to install the program into the robot. It mimics the deceased one's personality, speech, and gestures. The robot can imitate hand and head movements the person was making during the interview.... As unreal as it may seem, the artist is planning to sell digital shaman to the public in the future.
People may wonder if the creator is planning to allow the deceased to live forever through the program. She's not. "I think it will seriously hinder those left behind to move on." We live in a digital world. And now a robot has brought together "IT technology" and "Death".
It's part of a larger research project on Japanese funeral rites, and one of a series of works on "digital shamanism" that "attempt to blend Japanese folk beliefs with technology."
An artist's statement calls it "a new mode of mourning in keeping with the technical advances of today."
Users will have an interview with the artist while they're alive. Their physical characteristics and messages will be recorded then. After the user dies, the bereaved ones will be able to install the program into the robot. It mimics the deceased one's personality, speech, and gestures. The robot can imitate hand and head movements the person was making during the interview.... As unreal as it may seem, the artist is planning to sell digital shaman to the public in the future.
People may wonder if the creator is planning to allow the deceased to live forever through the program. She's not. "I think it will seriously hinder those left behind to move on." We live in a digital world. And now a robot has brought together "IT technology" and "Death".
It's part of a larger research project on Japanese funeral rites, and one of a series of works on "digital shamanism" that "attempt to blend Japanese folk beliefs with technology."
An artist's statement calls it "a new mode of mourning in keeping with the technical advances of today."
Maybe they should think about having more kids and spend time with them instead of with dead people.
Like neuromancer's ghost boxes.
‘An artist's statement calls it "a new mode of mourning in keeping with the technical advances of today.”’
I call it just plain creepy.
#DeleteChrome
... revived heads in glass jars that can talk?
Bach says it all.
Less of a valley. More Mariana's Trench.
who would like to have oral sex with their dead grandma, apparently.
Kinda like EditorDavid.
It's thought that the uncanny valley appears to creep people out because the figure resembles a corpse. In this case, the robot INTENTIONALLY resembles a corpse.
There's a reason it was a Japanese person that came up with the concept of the 'uncanny valley'...
Personally, I want a digital assistant that has the voice and personality of a target deceased person. I'll call it... 'virtual necromancy'.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
We've already had paintings and photos of our loved ones for a couple centuries. We can easily create audio & video keepsakes. How is this better? If we really want an animated freak show, I think a hologram would be more innovative. My Mexican neighbors can put the face of a departed loved one on a pinata and beat the crap out of it. (We sometimes have some animosity toward our closest relatives.)
...omphaloskepsis often...
I _really_ want to honour my wife's memory, if you know what I'm saying.
I read "3D-Printed Feces" and did a double-take! That's funny. :)
If Hollywood has taught me anything, it is that bringing the dead back to life is a very bad idea!
This is the creepiest thing ever!
And what happens when the battery dies, those in morning go though the whole death thing again... That would suck so much.
Oh gosh I remember how in Sunday school they taught us how its whats on the inside that matters
3D printing has enabled cheap 3D printed housing and cars (as promised), and now we can use 3D printing for frivolous performance art?
mom
"I always did rather fancy ye, sonny! Yer such a good-lookin boy! Come 'ere, an' git your little taste o' Gramma's sushi! Don't be shy!"
Name the product âoenever changeâ
Oh, I'm not going to use a dead relative. I'm going to put a Lucy Liu mask on it. However, it's too small and there is no place to put my dick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU6U2B4VBqQ
Warrior's Wish: "When I am dead, cry for me a little. Think of me sometimes, but not too much. It is not good for you to dwell too long. Think of me now and again as I was in life, at some moment which is pleasant to recall, but not for long. Leave me in peace as I shall leave you, too, in peace."
I cannot imagine that this proposed device would help healing in any way. As long as we are temporal creatures, death is something we have to deal with in a healthy and productive way, and IMO, this ain't it.
YMMV.
Crowfoot, Chief of the Siksika, 1890, dying words: “A little while and I will be gone from among you, whither I cannot tell. From nowhere we come, into nowhere we go. What is life? It is a flash of firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
You will be able to stay with that robot for 49 days which is the period of mourning after the funeral in Japan.
After which, you get a doll that looks like the robot and you can stay with that for 49 days while you mourn the loss of your robot ... After which ...
I'm not sure how this is a good idea. Now you'll have memories of your relative and the robot mimicking your relative mixed together at a very emotional time and I can't imagine that being a good thing on the long run. Perhaps if you have things you needed to say, but didn't have the chance to, this would give you your audience, but I know from experience that you can always do that by yourself. My wife Sue died of a brain tumor in January 2006, just 7 weeks after diagnosis. Thankfully, we had that time together to spend our last Thanksgiving, 16th wedding anniversary, Christmas and New Year together and she, literally, died in my arms. (Of course, now this time of year really sucks for me.) And, even though we were able to say what we needed to say, I still think of things I want to say to her. I say them now anyway and try to remember them for when I see her again.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Black Mirror covers this exact scenario in Be Right Back. Did this guy steal the idea from there?
Bobblehead Dolls. Easier to make and probably more realistic /s
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw