Talking to yourself
Last October I participated in the Metaverse Catalyst meeting held at he IE School of Science and Technology in Madrid. For Ikhlaq Sidhu, dean of the S&T school, #Metaverse is #Cyberspace. We already spend a lot of time on it (like, right now!) and will keep spending more and more. I agree with him.
Lots and lots of smart people were there, but not all ideas were equally interesting to me. As a biologist, I tend to look at #biochemistry and #evolution for basic principles that may constrain #creativity and #innovation. Even though social media managed to hack our #dopamine system to hook us in front of our devices, I still believe that in person social interaction are irreplaceable and will remain the most powerful non-drug induced #human experience.
So, to me, all attempts to recreate a presencial experience in the metaverse still seem silly. A waste of resources.
But there are many good uses of the cyberspace. #Virtual or #Enhanced #Reality can help people experience (and get educated) about the things that we cannot experience in the real world: the too small (cell, #DNA, molecules, atoms), the too big (continentes, solar system, #universe), the too fast (speed of sound and #light, electrical impulse) and the too slow (#evolutionary time).
Unfortunately I think I was not clear enough when I proposed ‘The DNA World’, a virtual reality space in which we see the #life in an environment according to #DNA fragments that we find in the air and surfaces.
Among the possible uses of cyberspace, one in particular blew my mind.
Someone talked about the possibility of creating a #clone of your #mind in the metaverse to serve as a virtual assistant. A Siri or Alexa version of you. Someone to help you book a flight or schedule a doctor.
At first sight this idea may seem silly too: why not simply have a human virtual assistant? Well, because, at least in my experience, human assistants nee, many times, you to assist them. And to providing all the specifications that they need, for example, to book a flight (what is my budget? What are preferred dates? Are dates flexible? Direct flight? How many stops are acceptable? Which connections would you prefer? Should I optimize for price or duration?) or to set a doctors appointment, make it easier and faster for me, to do it myself. This assistant would decide the way I would because… it’s my clone. And a clone that would be smarter (more and more like me) at every interaction with myself. So the ideia is not silly at all. It is a practical and productive use of the metaverse.
A second thing attracts me in this idea of the mind clone: it is digital native. It is not something from the #analog world that we are trying to recreate in cyberspace. It is a digital entity that could not live anywhere else.
I was happy thinking about my mind clone virtual assistant to be when I started imagining other applications for it.
If you’ve seen the episode ‘Be right back’ of ‘Black Mirror’ you know that science fiction has been exploring the idea of creating AI version of a deceased person. In Korea, they actually did it, in the documentary ‘Meeting you’, reuniting a mother with her deceased 7 year old daughter. There are other examples of people trying to create chatbots of deceased people based on their social network profiles using deep AI. And there are already startups offering it as a product.
The applications that came to mind were a bit less controversial, but still very interesting (at least to me): It could read all the books that I wanted (or not) to read, listen to all the music that I wanted (or not) to listen, watch all the movies that I wanted (or not) to watch but don’t have the time to. Even check all the social media notifications that I don’t care about checking.
Uau! That was much, much more powerful!
In the end of the day, I could sit with my headphones or ER/VR headset to chat with my clone, that would tell me which movies I should really watch and why; which book to read next, or just repeat to me snippets of text and quotes that it considered to be of my interest; and prepare a playlist with songs that it liked the most for to listen next time I go workout or for a long walk.
The benefits of such a mind clone were already difficult to grasp, but my mind went further:
What if the mind clone could talk to mind clones of friends, to get input and there opinion on stuff. Not quite the same as in the movie ‘Her’, in which the AI operating system talks to other AI operating systems and users. It would be a much more personalized experience. That could help groups reach consensus in topics like politics, community policy. That could help #LiquidyDemocracy become a reality. Moreover, your mind clone could discuss with the mind clone of an artists, politicians, authors, teachers… Your mind clone could go to law school for you!
My (actual) mind went even further: could I talk to different versions of myself?
I could have several clones and one could be more or less tolerant to this or that risk; more or less tolerant to this or that sacrifice; more left or right wing; bolder or more conservative. Other clones could have a life experience introduced or deleted, to see how that would affect my personality.
How cool and educative would be to have conversations these conversations?! I have the feeling that talking to different versions of yourself could help you improve yourself and become a better person in the real world.
I never managed to use Siri properly and never bought an Alexa. But I’d really want to have a (ore than one) personal cyberspace mind clone.
One little step further and you would be to be to talk to future versions of you, to help you decide if you would prefer to be a lawyer or a mathematician in five or ten years. Companies and legal persons could benefit from their own metaverse clones too, don’t you think. It would be an opportunity for running A/B tests of ourselves and our companies in the virtual world.