DUST TO DATA

Fictional explorations of the digital afterlife…

Could AI be the way to soothe grief and prolong life after death, or could technology be racing too fast for regulation to steer a safe and steady course?

Watch Dust to Data to envision a future where digital immortality becomes a reality and explore the important impact of technology on grief, mortality and digital legacies.

The four short fictional monologues each explore relatable near future stories of the opportunities and threats posed by different aspects of digital afterlives.

Watch the films, then have your say in our quick survey.

All anonymous responses will be gathered together by Dorothy House Hospice Care to discover how prepared as a society we are to embrace or reject the emergence of AI immortality. The results will then be published to give the public a voice in the future development and regulation of these fast-moving technologies.

Think you'll be dead before afterlife technology arrives? Think again, it's already here!

The hologram of Tupac performed in California – the first of many revivals of deceased artists.

2012
Facebook introduced the Legacy Contact.

2015
Dadbot created based on digital remains of a deceased father.

2017
Oxford Internet Institute (OII) referred to the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI).

2017
The first dedicated academic journal on posthuman and transhuman is established.

2017
Microsoft applied for a patent for a user and virtual experience which included a target identity: one that can be of a real person, alive or dead.

2018
Eugenia Kuyda memorialises her soulmate Roman - killed in a car accident - by asking his loved ones to share old text messages, feeding them into the neural network built by developers at her AI startup, Replika.

2018
Philips state a human digital twin is the next phase to personalised medical care.

2018
Digital fashion house The Fabricant launched, creating digital fashion that can be bought by customers for their digital avatars in the metaverse.

2018
OII predicts that Facebook will have 4.9bn profiles belonging to the deceased which outnumbers accounts of the living.

2019
A South Korean documentary, Meeting You, is one of the first showcases of how VR can bring back the dead.

2020
Kanye West gifts then-wife Kim Kardashian a deepfaked hologram of her late father as a birthday present.

2020
Facebook announced their rebranding to Meta and that their new strategy is the metaverse.

2021
ABBA Voyage is launched, first spectacle to use VR instead of holograms.

2022
SSelf founded, which is the next iteration of Eter9 founded in 2014.

2022
QR codes regularly found on gravestones.

2023

“We all have a digital footprint. Be it on social media, via music downloads, gaming avatars, voicemails, photos or email. But what happens to all of these digital touchpoints when someone dies?
These films offer us an opportunity to consider the digital legacies we leave behind us when we die, and what role we can play in shaping the future of these pioneering technologies.”

— James Byron - Director of Engagement, Dorothy House Hospice Care

Four fictional monologues exploring the digital afterlife…

Who wouldn't want to live forever?

2017, Aanon V, a Minerva employee, sits down with the company’s PR team to record an interview reassuring Minerva’s customers about the hacking incident.

Watch
Sebastian

2040, Ollie Haynes, designer and vlogger, publishes a video from the Kings Head Cemetery, Southport. Discover how his partner’s legacy has been reimagined.

Watch
You can keep your Lang Langs!

2041, Alex Zoltero, a musician, teacher and composer, is invited to explain his latest digital musical enterprise.

Watch
Lines have been blurred

2042, Emily Bourne , a recent employee of EvrAfter, comes forward to read evidence exposing illegal and immoral practices in her former workplace.

Watch

Take the Survey

The scenarios for these short films were researched & written over three days by cyber-security Phd students at the Universities of Bath & Bristol, in collaboration with Dorothy House Hospice and devised & produced by Kilter Theatre.

Although based on research into contemporary trends & plausible futurological models, the scenes are fictitious. It is entirely coincidental if there is any resemblance to actual places, products or people - living or dead.

Some viewers may, nevertheless, find the content unsettling - for more support on how to curate and manage your own Digital Legacy, click the button below.

The Dust to Data team

Support

DUST TO DATA

Fictional explorations of the digital afterlife…

Watch the films, then have your say in our quick survey.

Think you'll be dead before afterlife technology arrives? Think again, it's already here!

Think you'll be dead before afterlife technology arrives? Think again, it's already here!

The hologram of Tupac performed in California – the first of many revivals of deceased artists.

Facebook introduced the Legacy Contact.

Dadbot created based on digital remains of a deceased father.

Oxford Internet Institute (OII) referred to the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI).

The first dedicated academic journal on posthuman and transhuman is established.

Microsoft applied for a patent for a user and virtual experience which included a target identity: one that can be of a real person, alive or dead.

Eugenia Kuyda memorialises her soulmate Roman - killed in a car accident - by asking his loved ones to share old text messages, feeding them into the neural network built by developers at her AI startup, Replika.

Philips state a human digital twin is the next phase to personalised medical care.

Digital fashion house The Fabricant launched, creating digital fashion that can be bought by customers for their digital avatars in the metaverse.

OII predicts that Facebook will have 4.9bn profiles belonging to the deceased which outnumbers accounts of the living.

A South Korean documentary, Meeting You, is one of the first showcases of how VR can bring back the dead.

Kanye West gifts then-wife Kim Kardashian a deepfaked hologram of her late father as a birthday present.

Facebook announced their rebranding to Meta and that their new strategy is the metaverse.

ABBA Voyage is launched, first spectacle to use VR instead of holograms.

SSelf founded, which is the next iteration of Eter9 founded in 2014.

QR codes regularly found on gravestones.

Who wouldn't want to live forever?

Sebastian

You can keep your Lang Langs!

Lines have been blurred

The Dust to Data team

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