Passdown Project
Exploring how we "pass down" things to our children and grandchildren in an increasingly digital world
by Sam Liebeskind · updated 3mo ago
Passdown Project
Griefbots, Deadbots, Postmortem Avatars: on Responsible Applications of Generative AI in the Digital Afterlife Industry - Philosophy & Technology
Sam Liebeskind added 3mo ago
Sam Liebeskind added 3mo ago
In the mid-1990s, Dr. Marshall Duke and Dr. Robyn Fivush developed a measure called “Do You Know?” It had a series of 20 questions, including: Do you know where your grandparents grew up? Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school? Do you know where your parents met? Do you know an illness or something terrible that happened in your family? Do you know the story of your birth? It turned out that having the answers to these questions was the single best predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness. Children who know more about their families tend to do better when they face challenges, be more resilient, and moderate the effects of stress. Our family’s story—our history—is linked to our own personal identity and knowing that we belong to a larger family. “Children who have the most self-confidence have . . . a strong 'intergenerational self.’ They know they belong to something bigger than themselves,” said Dr. Duke…
- I turned forty earlier this March, and as I enter my forties, I’d like to leave a breadcrumb to revisit when I’m fifty. These four themes are what I intend to be guiding principles for how I live my life and prioritize my time in my 40s:
Sam Liebeskind added 3mo ago
the idea of leaving a personal digital 'breadcrumb' for 10 years down the line
- 6/ To add a bit more color: - the last major innovation in history and how we experienced it was Wikipedia, which was a landmark - LLMs and AI now offer a new modality to store information and make it experiential - even then, the methods by which we collect primary data for history, and how we make it discoverable, need to be updated for the mode... See more
Sam Liebeskind added 3mo ago
- By continuing to pursue these lines of thought, we develop new ways of framing our interactions with the dead online, and may find pathways for breaking our calcified archival imaginaries and reimagine new ways of living with the data bodies we construct, inhabit, and inherit.
from Sarah Wambold & Rem Moore: Only Loss
Sam Liebeskind added 4mo ago
- StoryFile Memories is a cloud-based file storage system in which people can upload all manner of digital artifacts - images, video and sound recording - to become an interactive AI of their "authentic self" intended to live after death and communicate with the bereaved. ( 8 ) With plans ranging from $1 per question to a one-time, all-access price o... See more
from Sarah Wambold & Rem Moore: Only Loss
Sam Liebeskind added 4mo ago
Sam Liebeskind added 4mo ago
Otto - AI biographer
Sam Liebeskind added 4mo ago
How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but—mainly—to ourselves.
from The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Sam Liebeskind added 4mo ago
- Similarly, I was foolish and didn’t upload my high-school, college, and pre-2013 photos, most of them digital, to the cloud. Thanks to a damaged hard drive and a lost computer, most of these photos are gone, creating a massive hole in my life. What does it mean that my digital likeness, save for some Facebook photos, begins so late? Are the memorie... See more
from Confessions of an Information Hoarder by Charlie Warzel
Sam Liebeskind added 10mo ago