Genealogy research isn’t always easy, or straightforward. Sometimes, you hit a dead end, and cannot find any information at all about a particular ancestor, which can be frustrating. Or, if you have found out a lot about a particular ancestor, you might have questions for her about some of the choices she made in her life. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could somehow meet that elusive ancestor, and ask your questions directly to her? Well, the Intellitar company is working on making that situation possible for your descendants.
You might think of your genealogy research as a way of putting together a story. Each piece of information adds to that story. Together, all these stories make a “book” of your family. Sometimes, a story seems unfinished, or leaves you with questions that you haven’t yet found the answers to. Are there unsolved mysteries in your family tree? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could actually speak with that ancestor, ask your questions, and finally find out all the details about how, where, and why something important happened? Why did he decide to join the military, during a time of war? What happened that made her give her child up for adoption? Who was the person in this photograph, next to you? It is, unfortunately, impossible to go back in time and have an interview with your deceased ancestors. However, your children, grandchildren, and future descendants might be spared these kinds of frustrations, if you create a digital clone of yourself.
There is a company called Intellitar. They are the developers of something called the Intelligent Avatar Platform. They have announced the live beta release of Virtual Eternity. It is a web based application that allows a person to create their very own “Intelligent Avatar”, which will behave like a digital clone. Upload your image, so your clone will look like you. Answer a series of pre-set questions and some customizable questions. When you are finished, you end up with a digital clone who looks like you, speaks like you, and thinks and acts just like you would. After your clone is finished being created, the idea is that others can interact with it through a variety of social media outlets. Work is still being done to improve the digital clones speech, and to make it appear more natural. They are adding variety to the body types, image types, ethnicities, and dialects as well.
To some, this can be a way of achieving immortality. To genealogists, this is a way to help your descendants to “meet” you after you are gone. This way, when they come up with questions about your life that they cannot find answers to, they can simply sit down at their computers, and ask “you” about those things.
Image by Marck Bellucci on Flickr