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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."
Kids are shit. They scream and holler and run around all the time.
Yeah, well, I can hear the snarling robot now: You're a good for nuthin loser! You don't get a dime! I gave it all to the children's library HAHAHAHAAA
Just wait until they get arms and legs and start chasing you around the house with a knife, yelling, Where did you hide my dentures?! Who stole my hat?! Where are the broads?? I need a drink!
Please, tell me about the screaming and hollering. At least a kid will remember who you are.
‘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.
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.
If Hollywood has taught me anything, it is that bringing the dead back to life is a very bad idea!
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
You know, when you read ancient texts on travel in the ancient world, they speak of how, before you could see the boundaries of Persia, you could smell it's fragrent forests of spruce and evergreen. Now look at Persia, for all of the last 2000 years it has been arid and dry... I wonder, was it mankind that burned the wood to heat their homes and cook their food? Or climate change which occured back then?
"Governments have been dominated by the corporate entities and citizens have ceased to matter in public policy" true in
The exact link I was going to post... hmph.
Max Headroom predicts the future again!
Perfectly Normal Industries