Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tupac's Hologram And The Simulation Of Human Emotion


By now, I'm sure nearly everyone has seen the Tupac hologram. It's pretty cool. Ah, who am I kidding? It's really fucking cool, but as great as the hologram Tupac is, what the hologram represents is actually far more interesting than the technology.

Hologram Tupac was created to get a reaction from the crowd at Coachella. It is a lot like acting. This isn't acting though, this is a simulation of what they think the person would be like to elicit an emotional response in the people who saw it.

They are simulating Tupac's emotions, and people find the simulation so real that they are moved themselves.
This is the future that every sci-fi movie predicts involving robots.

Machines are becoming more like humans, which has been a constant goal in technology, but this is a huge step forward. People now believe in this technology. They believe in it to the point where they can be emotionally invested in a Tupac Hologram. Their mind knows that it is not Tupac, but their emotions relay something very different. All Tupac truly is at this point is an animation, but the animation is so real, and people want to believe so badly that they are willing to believe in it. Even though they want this hologram to be an accurate portrayal, it is just a program made to elicit a response, and a damn good one at that.

If they can do this with Tupac, they can do it with anyone. Find a good enough programmer and people never really die. There can be no physical contact, but that seems like a temporary issue that will be resolved soon enough. It's insane to think how far they can take this.

Is it good or bad? Both, neither, hell, I don't know. But it sure is interesting.

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