Towards a postmortal society of virtualised ancestors? The Virtual Deceased Person and the preservation of the social bond.
Research about digital immortality has grown in recent years, predominantly focusing on either the social effects of forms of digital immortalisation or on the available technologies. Few studies, however, adopt a clear sociological focus that remains attentive to the ontological dimension of digita...
| Publicado en: | Mortality Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 90 - 106 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Feb2023
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=161311565&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 161311565 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13576275 MIY jtl: Mortality issn: 13576275 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Feb2023 vid: 28 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 161311565 10.1080/13576275.2021.1878349 ppf: 90 ppct: 16 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 161311565 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 161311565 tig: atl: Towards a postmortal society of virtualised ancestors? The Virtual Deceased Person and the preservation of the social bond. aug: au: Hurtado Hurtado, Joshua affil: University of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Helsinki, Finland su: Death Artificial intelligence Families Interpersonal relations Digital technology Machine learning sug: subj: Death Artificial intelligence Families Interpersonal relations Digital technology Machine learning keyword: ancestor digital immortality posthumous personhood postmortal society social bond Virtual Deceased Person ancestor digital immortality posthumous personhood postmortal society social bond Virtual Deceased Person ab: Research about digital immortality has grown in recent years, predominantly focusing on either the social effects of forms of digital immortalisation or on the available technologies. Few studies, however, adopt a clear sociological focus that remains attentive to the ontological dimension of digital immortality. Adopting a future-oriented perspective, this article contributes to the sociological study of digital immortality by introducing the concept of the Virtual Deceased Person (VDP), a speculative artefact that convincingly simulates the mannerisms and character traits of a deceased person, allowing them to operate as social actors posthumously and preserve the human social bond. The article draws on anthropological and microsocial theory to characterise the VDP as a persona of the dead given agency and embodiment by future thanatechnologies. By positioning the concept within the digital immortality discourse and expanding the scope of the social bond to the study of digital immortality, I portray the VDP as a manifestation of posthumous personhood, arguing that it might facilitate preserving the social bond between the living and the dead throughout its creation process and its reintegration into the world of the living. I further discuss its implications for the emergence of a postmortal society of socially active, virtualised ancestors. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|