Cryptograves in the Metaverse: The Business of Digital Afterlife

Cryptograves in the metaverse
Cryptograves in the metaverse

We live, work, go to concerts, shop, and visit museums, cities, and fictional sites in the metaverse, that parallel universe that allows you to live digitally an alternate reality. Well, it was only a matter of time before we could also die, be revived, and become immortal in this new dimension.

Thanks to technology, This concept of a virtual, three-dimensional environment is highly realistic and in this you can interact with other people, work, study, play, even carry out economic transactions and investments with cryptocurrencies, ; attend concerts with famous artists, and much more. All without leaving your living room and in a decentralized manner.

Of course, has given rise to crypto-gravesThese are environments where people can pay to have an "afterlife" and even have conversations with the living behind the screen. How does this work? We'll tell you.

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2017: The concept that is possible today is born

In 2017, the company Etermine proposed the idea of ​​creating digital avatars of deceased individuals. To do so, all the information that could be collected about them during their lifetime would be used. This project It was derogatively nicknamed by its detractors as the Skype for the deadHowever, it was not successful or realized because the available artificial intelligence and machine learning technology at the time was not yet sufficiently advanced to achieve a realistic concept.

However, it cannot be denied that It set a precedent and the idea remained as a dormant seed that germinates today. thanks to the development of more sophisticated tools that are available.

Nowadays, cryptotombs are a reality. They are called this because transactions are made using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Some refer to this new service as "“digital resurrection.”

Thanks to the help of artificial intelligence Highly sophisticated audiovisual compositions use the historical data of a deceased or living person to reconstruct their history and always be present in the metaverse, whether they are already dead or in the future. To achieve these highly realistic audiovisual compositions, we use conversations or recordings of the person's voice, as well as photographs and videos.

The “gaps” in each script are filled by artificial intelligence This technology allows the voice, movement, image, and even the personality and behavior of deceased individuals to be recreated. The results are both astonishing and disturbing, to the point of generating ethical and sociological discussions about its relevance. This concept of digital life after death is already beginning to take shape and become a promising growth industry.

With the tools and resources Technology is advancing so that a missing person always maintains a link, even if only digitally, with the rest of the world after death.

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From Bruce Lee, Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson to Tutankhamun and the Mona Lisa

Even a child can use an app or program and bring real characters to life. or invented ones that can be brought to the metaverse. In fact, recreations of the Mona Lisa in dozens of settings and contexts are already famous and viral, becoming entertaining viral memes that show us the power of technology.

With her too The rapper, famous in the 90s and murdered, Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson have returned to life. to brighten up his fans' lives. Joaquín Sabina's latest video also features the late Javier Krahe using AI.

But, the latest in crypto-grave issues in the Metaverse is the opportunity to visit the tomb of Egypt's most famous pharaoh: Tutankhamun.An initiative of this country's government gave rise to the MetaTut project, which not only makes it possible to visit the monarch's remains, but also brings the nation's culture closer to anyone who wants it, from anywhere in the world.

Reconstructing the history and origin of everything

The crypto-graves in the metaverse also have another fundamental antecedent and it was driven by StoryFile, an emerging company in the digital resurrection market. The idea of ​​creating life after death was born when its founders Stephen Smith and Heather Miao-Smith were developing a documentary project about the Nazi Holocaust in Europe, based on interviews with survivors.

They then set themselves the goal of recreate the experience in an original way so that real conversations could be held with deceased people who could tell their stories, rather than simply capturing the entire plot in a simple documentary. Hence, the urgent need to develop an artificial intelligence-powered video and audio system that would allow the protagonists to speak for themselves.

So, StoryFile does this while the person who wants to have a cryptograve in the metaverse is still alive. Of course, this allows Greater realism and less work for AI to fill in the blanksHowever, artificial intelligence does allow for responses and interactions by learning from the patterns its algorithm is fed.

Stephen Smith and Heather Miao-Smith point out that This makes it possible for artificial intelligence to make fewer mistakes. because the program chooses everything from a database that has been fed over time, in a history of that person, to be used by their avatar.

StoryFile is just one example of companies dedicated to recreating life after death. Like this one, many others have emerged, driven by demand from those seeking to be "immortal." HereAfter AI, Replika, and Project December are other examples of companies offering similar services.

Cryptograves in the metaverse and social controversies

Death is part of the life of societies And cultures approach it according to their own belief system. Consequently, it is an anthropological phenomenon that impacts human groups.

Phillip David Brooker, Terence Heng, Michael Mair, and Dipanjan Saha published an article on The Conversation that addressed this topic of digital life after death. The first three are professors and Sociology researchers at the University of Liverpool and the fourth aspires to a PhD at the same institution.

Although it is an attractive concept and a way to pay tribute to a deceased person or a channel for someone living to leave their legacy after their death, the four experts raise ethical and practical questions about this matter. Everything centers on the question: what if this path leads these people (some famous and authoritative on various topics) to say or affirm something they doubtfully could have done while alive?

In this sense, they break down possible derived situations that an AI program takes on the personality of someone who was real, who had a life, who loved, suffered and had real connections with other human beings.

In their research, the professors cite Debra Bassett, author of several books, in this regard. Among them, “Creating and Inheriting Afterlives: You Only Live Twice”In this book, the author analyzes how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter (today X) and WhatsApp facilitate in an inadvertent and natural way the creation of digital lives after death.

Likewise, and even more relevant, it exposes the impact that this digital legacy has on family members and loved ones. Bassett addresses this phenomenon in a comprehensive analysis and presents qualitative data obtained from three main groups: service providers, digital creators, and digital heirs.

It looks out to the reality of the mourners, focuses on the loss of valuable data and how the lack of control or technological obsolescence can trigger a second emotional loss, which would create in the mourners what is called “fear of the second loss.” Bassett concludes that digital lives and traditional theories of grief overlap, and proposes expanding this belief system to include these aspects of digital inheritance.

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The future is here

Crypto-graves in the metaverse are not bad and they are not good.They simply are and exist. It's a new reality that's just beginning, and it's merely a tool that will allow us to leave a legacy or memory for future generations. Like any other emerging technology, it causes controversy, raises questions, and raises theories. You can't give all the answers or predict what will or won't happen.Societies themselves will determine the dynamics, and each digital life will be observed individually. The truth is that the future is already here, and no one can stop it.