VR in Death-Tech
Today we want to discuss an ambiguous and complex topic VR Death-Tech
In 2016, a 7 years old daughter of a South Korean woman died of leukemia. The girl’s ashes were placed in a pendant. For eight months, a team of documentary filmmakers recreated the girl in VR in detail: her appearance, voice, facial expressions. They also drew a park where mother and daughter used to walk.
👨🏼🏫 We asked the CEO of VR Concept Denis Zakharkin what does he think about that story and the VR Death-Tech?
How was created the VR meeting between mom and her dead daughter?
Based on the photographs and voice recording, a virtual avatar of the girl was created and the voice was synthesized. A simulation was created using a graphics engine. The equipment used was HTC Vive PRO. All this helped the mother to immerse herself in the virtual space with her daughter.
🤔 What do you think about this way of using VR technology?
The ways of using VR are limitless, everything that happens in the real world can be transferred into virtual space and simulated, and you can also recreate impossible events or unreal worlds. And such situations are natural to a person — people create and dedicate films and books in memory of their deceased loved ones. Even in ancient times, people immortalized loved ones in the form of paintings and sculptures. This allows you to overcome the severity of loss and find psychological balance. It is not uncommon for rich people to turn to artists and then to photographers to capture their memory.
Virtual reality technology is just a tool, a tool for interacting with information in a visual and not only form. This technology is more immersive than photography or film — it makes it possible to feel your presence in the virtual space and interact with it. VR has long been used by physicians and psychologists for the rehabilitation of critically ill patients, including those with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and as physiotherapy for stroke recovery.
Therefore, using VR in this perspective can be viewed as a psychological relief and the ability to “let go” of a loved one who has left and get rid of obsessive thoughts
Is it legal and ethical to use such technologies?
It all depends on the purpose for which the technology is used; any technology can be used deliberately or unknowingly to the detriment. If we consider such use as psychotherapy, with the participation of specialists who perfectly understand the capabilities of technology, a developer, a psychologist and a psychotherapist, then this will help to quickly recover from psychological shocks and return to normal life, and live happily further.
From the point of view of legality, there are no violations of current laws, since for computer games and films, this is not the first case where we can see people who have already left the world. On the other hand, we can expect the expansion of laws related to personal data, where possible their use for such purposes after death.
How will VR develop in the field of death tech in the future, will it be possible to completely copy a person’s consciousness and transfer it into virtual reality or is it on the verge of fantasy?
Now it is on the verge of fiction for us, and we can see it in science fiction — TV shows, films and books. On the other hand, there are already many examples when not only the departed, but also living people are digitized in the form of an avatar with “artificial intelligence” for use in the form of bots and voice assistants. Of course, they do not have will, consciousness and intelligent intelligence. Although technology is developing rapidly, we still know very little about the nature and internal structure of man, probably in a hundred years or more, this will become possible, but now it is difficult to foresee.
In what direction do you think the death tech market will develop?
If we look at the statistics for death tech, we will see that this is a completely new term that has not yet come into use. On the other hand, people have always tried to perpetuate the memory of themselves, their loved ones, and the development of neural networks, virtual reality and robotics technologies will promote this market.
If we look at the statistics for death tech, we will see that this is a completely new term that has not yet come into use. On the other hand, people have always tried to perpetuate the memory of themselves, their loved ones, and the development of neural networks, virtual reality and robotics technologies will promote this market.
There will be more solutions where we can communicate with no longer existing people, and our digital footprint will make it easier to create a virtual copy. Further, we can expect that on the basis of these decisions will be created robots — copies of real people and there will be projects that will propose to make a robot clone of a departed loved one, as we have already seen in the series “Black Mirror”.
