If you haven’t already seen the video, you’ve at least heard about AI’s latest shtick: Keeping grandmothers alive. Give it a watch. It will only take a minute. My thoughts are below.
We’ve finally made it!
A generation ago, thanks to medical science, what used to require major surgery is solved with an in-and-out procedure. Meanwhile, in-and-out procedures get solved with medications. Planet Earth’s dominant species, particularly those inhabiting nations with robust markets, could sigh with relief knowing they can live up to 10 decades. But a hundred years is no longer satisfactory; thus, AI has picked up where medical science has fallen short: Keeping us alive forever. Apparently, being kept alive forever is the newest initiative. It’s Faustian bullshit on steroids, minus the part where, to live forever, one must enter into a bargain with the Devil. Wow, we should give AI its props; it’s so clever and powerful that it was able to eliminate the middleman (Satan)!
Grandma: “So, you’re telling me I don’t have to sell my soul to live forever?”
No. But I got bad news for you, Grandma; you’re gonna die irrespective of whether or not the Devil manages to convince you that selling your soul is the best pathway to eternal life. Worse, no one needs to grieve your passing because you’ll live on as a digital avatar—a handy-dandy app one only needs to tap their phone screen to deploy, and then presto, the family matriarch is resurrected! Doubtless, Jesus must be thinking: Been there, done that, but those nails were a real sonofabitch.
Will the dearly departed be as dear if they are not quite departed?
We, in the 21st century, have conquered the final frontier: death. Thus, we can jettison bereavement to verses by poets with old souls, longing for the past. Yessiree, dead grandmothers everywhere will come to life in the form of an app. Anytime we face adversity, Grandma, rest assured, will come to the rescue and greet us with a warm smile. Ever reliable and always agreeable grandma: she never ages and will appear whenever beckoned to tell us exactly what we want to hear by coddling our algorithmically crippled sensibilities. But now begs the question: what happens to the value of phones once they are vehicles for communicating with “the other side?” And how crazed would one become if they lost their phone, or worse, their phone was stolen? What would you be willing to pay to retrieve a phone that gave you “seemingly real-life” access to a dead loved one? Lastly, would Grandma be saved to the cloud? In all that mishmash, I’m sure there’s an irony.
A final thought
You cannot love another to the point of love consuming your whole heart if the potential of losing them is taken. Think about it…
Michael's Corner 
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