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March 28th, 2024

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Remembrance Technology

News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

By News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

Published June 11, 2015

Remembrance Technology

In March, the U.S. patent office approved Google's application covering robot software that mimics human personalities (voice, mannerisms) using a variety of moods (happiness, fear, surprise) with a notable use that family members might employ it to continue to "interact" with a loved one after he has passed. One disquieting possibility might allow a deceased person to be directed to act in ways that the person never acted while alive. [Discover Magazine, 4-26-2015]

Entrepreneurship: (1) A curious woman, inspired by her own mother's attachment to her unlaundered pillowcases following the death of her dad, has partnered with France's Universite du Havre to produce a person's bottled scent by processing old clothing. A September rollout is planned, with the probable retail price of about $600. (2) Artist Mark Sturkenboom has described plans for an even more remarkable remembrance device (if the deceased is male): a dildo that holds 21 grams of cremated ashes (accessorized, perhaps for non-sexual "cover," by a necklace and music player). "After passing," Sturkenboom explained, "the missing of intimacy" is "one aspect of the pain and grief." [Popular Science, 4-24-2015] [Metro News (London), 4-26-2015]

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