Imagine that, in 100 years, a family member wants to talk to you, a non-biological member of the family.
Yes, by then you probably won't be alive, or will you? Without being alive, can you continue to be part of your family? Have an active and daily presence in the decisions of the company you left as a legacy? Can you continue to be present at family lunches? To listen and tell stories? To analyze and discuss current topics? To blow out the candles on your birthday, albeit as a non-biological member of your family?
And what if it's possible to start preparing all of this today? And if all this could be possible in much less than 100 years?
Confused? It's natural that you are, but let's go back to the beginning.
Imagine, that in 100 years, your great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren are faced with a problem, a difficult decision they have to make to ensure the continuity of the family business you left them as a legacy. Or that they have a family problem and want to hear various opinions from more experienced family members. Faced with the challenge, they decide to invoke your "Artificial Intelligence", your "digital twin" that you prepared with all the information you deemed relevant to leave for future generations to preserve years of wisdom and accumulated learning in the family.
On that day, you will be much more than a faint memory in the remembrance of your relatives. You will no longer be just a name engraved and worn by time on a marble tombstone of a cemetery, or an unused profile on a social network where you left digital fragments of your biological life. On that day, you will be able to actively help your great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren decide the path of continuity for your legacy.
Imagem desenvolvida em Dall-E, por Mindtree Lda
The evolutionary curve of all this will be very short, yet very interesting. Possibly, in phases: first, it will be possible to talk to you through text in a chat, then by voice, and later in augmented reality, virtual reality, and hologram.
Judging by the current pace of development of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and machine learning and computing capacity, over the next 10 years we may create more than physical or digital memories: we can leave an AI version of ourselves, capable of interacting with future generations, advising them, and actively participating in the continuity of family and business legacies.
To all this, I decided to call it, AI Immortality Without a Soul. You can continue to exist, be immortal, but your soul will not.
The notion of immortality, traditionally associated with the preservation of the soul or spirit, is being reinterpreted through technology. This AI will not preserve the "soul" in the spiritual or religious sense, but rather the cognitive and experiential essence of an individual. Your digital immortality can be achieved through the storage and simulation of thought patterns, memories, values, and personality.
Artificial Intelligence allows, once again in the history of humanity, to make real what until now existed only in science fiction, imagined by man. And it has the cognitive ability to continue learning based on its own experience and information it is fed.
I know that this is a topic with various philosophical questions that deserve to be debated, and that there are many questions that must be asked before making a decision regarding how you intend to prepare or not your AI.
Do you want to leave an AI prepared by you as a legacy for future generations? If not, how can you ensure that someone does not do it for you without your authorization? Are you willing to have your memory preserved and told by third parties, based only on articles and fragments available on social networks or in the media?
And if that memory is not correct, nor true, or is manipulated as happens with Fake News? How can you ensure that your AI will not be tampered with?
If willing, how can you prepare all the necessary information about yourself to "feed" your AI? What victories, challenges, books you've read, movies you've seen, teachings, strategies, moral values, thoughts, recipes for life, do you want to be preserved in your AI? Who in your family will be able to access your AI? What image do you want your AI to keep of you? Should your AI have the ability to evolve and learn after your physical death, or should it remain a faithful portrait of the moment of its creation? Who will help you document and preserve your memories and legacy?
Having answers to these questions, I will focus only on the last one! Who will help you document and preserve your memories and your legacy? At Mindtree, we recognize the depth of this challenge and are committed to providing the tools and guidance necessary to help you document and preserve the memories of your legacy.
We have developed a personalized program, tailored to each individual, for collecting, preserving, and curating memories in multimedia formats to help you prepare your virtual inheritance, which individual, for collecting, preserving, and curating memories in multimedia formats to help you prepare your virtual inheritance, which can be consulted at: https://www.mindtree.me/en/legacydoc
We are ready to help you decide, talk to you about all this, and, build together the Artificial Intelligence of your Legacy.
Artificial Intelligence: Immortality Without a Soul
Rui Lourenço
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