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New Patented System Brings the Dead Back to "Life"
__roo writes "Today's New York Times [free login req. to read - ed.]reports that Michigan inventor Lynn Svevad has invented the "Ancestral Computer Program", which virtually brings a deceased relative "back to life" by drawing upon stored data. It uses voice recognition and stored animations and responses recorded while the person was alive to simulate the responses that the relative would have given, simulating 'a two way conversation between the user and the relative.' Search www.uspto.gov for patent #5,946,657. Didn't I see this in an old episode of Max Headroom? (see episode #8)"
I forget which book it was in (#3 I think), but it does go into some detail about how, at first, they wee merely recording responses of people for playback, then they go more sophisticated at it, finally ending up with machine-stored personalities (although they did need the Heechee Technology to go that far). Plus, add in the fact that the Heechee carried their machine stored dead relatives around on their waists (they even called them "ancestors" or "old ones"), and I think you've broken this stupid patent..
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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Just imagine they use this thing to have Celine Dion singing "My heart will go on" for centuries after her death ?...
But, by the way, I'm wondering... Aren't they already using it right now for the Rolling Stones ???
Thomas Miconi
Karma Police - Enforcing peace of mind by all possible means.
as a couple other posters here have noted, the TV show "red dwarf" used the same idea for the entire series.. and if THAT isn't prior art..
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
This stuff goes *way* back.
Or that old movie with R-45, etc., where the R indicated the percentage of human capacity that the machine reached, allowing transferance at R-100.
you mean "Brain tape" don't you? i loved that term, it'd be great to have my entire being summed up in a linear-access storage medium.
Somebody get our flag back!
This is really pathetic. It sounds like they're patenting a sophiticated Eliza. If you want to preserve the memory of a relative, take pictures. It's a lot simpler and more dignified.
Imagine recording all your old girlfriends with such a device? Or buying the latest version of some hot Hollywood babe? Sounds like an interesting future we're headed for... Hmmm, now if only Nitrozac would release Nitrozac Live v. 1.0!
(Ergh, I'm too unawake to figure out how to get the spacing right...)
Start out with a line like this (in Perl, of course):
$choices = int(rand(50000));
The Bill Clinton function is something like this:
sub bill_clinton {
my $do = $choices % 3;
if ($do == 0) {
say("I did not have sex with that woman");
}
elsif ($do == 1) {
say("It depends on what the definition of
is is");
}
elsif ($do == 2) {
say("It's time to end the politics of personal
destruction");
}
}
Similarly, the Al Gore function is something like this:
sub al_gore {
my $do = $choices % 2;
if ($do == 0) {
say("I took the initiative in creating the
Internet");
}
elsif ($do == 1) {
say("Vote for me; I'm solid as an oak");
}
}
and so on...
10Brett-T
Oh, bother.
They had electronic personalities all over the place in those books. Unfortunately, I agree with the first poster, this is suckerware. Besides, it's more fun to try to bring them back to life with large doses of electricity =)
Theoretically if we ever gain a detailed understanding of the human brain and also create imaging technology sophisticated enough to analyze a complete state of a human brain this stuff might be feasible. Right now you're better off getting your head frozen (this also applies to people thinking of buying this program, not just the recently deceased).
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
Andy Garcia in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead ran a company that videotaped answers of people who were near death. The summary says it best: "videotaping the terminally-ill, so that they will be around to give 'Afterlife Advice' to their survivors". (It was his day job, not the central point of the movie.) Good movie, by the way.
This seems like a truly incosiderate idea. People who have lost someone close need to try and accept the loss and move on. Having a computer that can simulate the life is not the way to do that. In the long run it will just cause pain even if it does soften the blow over the short term.(although I doubt it could do that) We definitly need to stop using technology just because we can, it should be a means and not and end in itself.
You patent inventions.
You copyright programs.
That's the way it should be, at least. The only saving grace is that I can think of at least two examples of prior art in fiction (Adamantium by L.E. Modestitt Jr. and Dirty Pair: Fatal but Not Serious) of computer programs of the dead, and I'm sure there's more. Patent reform must be coming, sooner or later...
even ignoring the huge amounts of previous prior art, i wonder how this would be patentable anyway. I mean, aren't patents supposed to cover specific, nonobvious techniques? Whereas this is broad, vague, and obvious. How was this ever approved?
I'm beginning to sense that the patent people just hand out patents to everyone who asks, and assume that if someone is hurt by that patent, whoever it was will just happen to have the huge amount of money laying around to have a bogus patent struck down.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
"Mommy! Grandma bluescreened!"
Anyone read the "Chung Kuo" series written by David Wingrove? After the Chinese conquered the world, the Emperors had a device that kept track of all the memories and experiences from the previous generations. In short, they'd continue the ancestor worship by "capturing" the personality within a portrait that could speak to you...
:P That'd probably be more productive. ;)
Interesting idea for those into ancestor worship, but I can't find a "real world" application for this technology. Actually, I could try porting my pets.
There was a service in which people would purchase robotic flying robots to record them so that their descendants could watch random bits of their lives.