Elon Musk and the problem with immortality - by Ginger Liu

Interactive internet-based technologies are transforming the way in which we understand death, grieving, and coping with loss. Online communication together with changes in social and religious attitudes in western society has created a space where the individual is part of the collective. The transition from analog to digital combines the private with the public and the real with the virtual. Feeding the digital afterlife zeitgeist are tech giants who are eager to build a synthetic heaven where big egos go to die. The idea of a synthetic heaven is offensive to many with long-standing religious beliefs even though those same beliefs are as synthetic as digital data. GLIU AI and Visual Arts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. We are living in an AI-powered Matrix future and the richest man in the world agrees.