Virtual death in the metaverse
2023.03.08 10:13
Virtual death in the metaverse
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – Humanity has struggled with the age-old question of “what happens after we die” for millennia. Theories about each person’s future beyond this life have been proposed by philosophers, religious leaders, and other thought leaders. There hasn’t been a conclusive science-based conclusion to this point.
Clinicians have grasped that the feeling of dread toward death — or the acknowledgment of mortality — is a significant inspiration of human activity. As another attempt to answer this question or even defeat death, developments like cloning and the creation of virtual worlds, which were once science fiction, have become reality.
Humans are the architects of a new digital world and, consequently, a new digital life in the metaverse age. The metaverse in Web3 has attracted a lot of investment from outside sources and increased participation from established businesses. By 2030, the metaverse industry is expected to be worth $5 trillion.
Many people think that social life will change because of the metaverse.
Naturally, the same timeless questions are brought up in this new form of digital life, but with a twist. Will death be altered if digital reality reimagines life? In particular, what happens when we die as avatars and humans in the metaverse?
What occurs when we pass away digitally?
Regarding our souls’ final or next destination, the existential question of what happens after we die remains unanswerable. However, the human experience of deciding what happens to our bodies after death is handled in a variety of ways by cultures around the world.
The question of what happens after death reappears as more people digitize their identities, create avatars in virtual worlds, and hold digital assets.
One of the earliest instances of people having to deal with a digital identity after death was when social media was introduced.
A user’s profile on Facebook, for instance, is “memorialized” as a “place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.” Additionally, it acts as a security measure to prevent additional logins.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been working hard to develop the metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg, the organization’s pioneer, made an explainer video for Meta’s metaverse in October 2021.
Users started asking about death in the metaverse, despite the fact that the clip did not explicitly mention death. A dystopian meme featuring a Zuckerberg quote went viral on social media shortly after: In the event that you kick the bucket in the metaverse, you bite the dust, in actuality.”
However, as digital reality develops, metaverse platform founders and executives are toying with the idea of death.
According to Frank Wilder, co-founder of the metaverse platform Wilder World, the concept of “dying” is no longer limited to the death of a physical body as we construct sacred spaces within the metaverse and create new avatar versions of ourselves:
“In this digital world, we can imagine new ways of living after death, like keeping a person’s digital consciousness or making a virtual memorial,”
According to Wilder, “honoring the sacredness of life is a delicate exploration,” and humans will inherit a variety of options for honoring their lives.
Sky burial grounds.
This “new dimension of reality” exhorts Mariana Cabugueira, the lead architect and urban planner of Wiami, Wilder World’s first digital city, to take a novel approach to preserving legacy.
Take, for instance, the idea of cemeteries. She thinks that metaverse cemeteries will be more like designated memorial spaces with capsules that hold soul and memory and were made by the owner for digital rest, rather than graveyards.
“These digital capsules convey the warm feeling of a soul, tell our story, and share how we want to be remembered and honored.”
According to Cabugueira, “memory-capsule cemeteries will be places for life closure, for ending our characters — a self we departed from — or a stage of life we are no longer in— even though avatars do not age.” Although avatars do not age, the mind behind the avatar can supersede the digital character and deserves closure and celebration.
A memorial stone from the ecosystem Remember, which lets users create memorials for significant life events. Source: Keep in mind that Cabugueira has an idea of how these spaces will look in Wilder World. She said that these memorial spaces would be high up, “like cathedrals,” and they would have meanings related to light and the sky.
She stated, “Remembrance is not just a burial but a celebration of life evolving.”
Digital life after death: ethics
One aspect of what follows a digital death is not limited to digital cemeteries. The more pressing issue is: What happens to our data and digital assets?
Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu believes that this discussion is still in its infancy. He told Cointelegraph that people are thinking more about “how custody of assets can be transferred to heirs rather than managing metaverse identity” when they consider these issues. Siu stated,
Even if you no longer manage it, your digital persona can still have an impact and influence in the metaverse. In point of fact, even after a person dies physically, a digital persona may gain even more influence and, as a result, value.
Marja Konttinen, the showcasing head of the Decentraland Establishment — the establishing association of the Decentraland metaverse — said that virtual universes are much of the time considered a “thing representing things to come;” However, they can also be useful as historical windows.
Konttinen drew attention to the fact that a digital twin that continues to exist after its owner dies could raise ethical concerns comparable to those pertaining to deep fakes and artificial intelligence.
She stated, “It certainly opens up the possibility of creating a permanent virtual mausoleum of our memories and experiences, maybe in the form of a NPC [non-player character] that looks and speaks like us, forever living in the metaverse.” This would allow for the creation of a permanent virtual mausoleum.
“Dremains” and “Thanotechnology”
The study of death and remembrance has been brought together by death in digital reality, bringing together previously distinct technologies.
The term “thanatologist” comes from the Greek word for death, “thanatos,” which means “specialist in understanding death, dying, grief, and bereavement.” Cole Imperi is the founder of the School of American Thanatology. She revealed to Cointelegraph that there is a subfield of thanatology called “thanotechnology” that focuses on how her field and technology intersect.
She stated to Cointelegraph that digital spaces may provide additional means of “seamlessly connecting the dead with the living,” which are lacking in physical spaces:
“The digital afterlife houses the greatest opportunity for advancement in the way we memorialize and remember our loved ones” and “offers more opportunity for continued bonds with our deceased loved ones.”
Imperi even came up with the term “dremains” in 2009, which refers to the digital remains that people leave behind online when they pass away. The ThanaLab, which studies “online memorialization patterns and developments related to user death,” is run with Imperi’s assistance.
She said that users are dying digitally more and more, so it makes sense to bring this part of our physical lives into the digital world.
Do we have solutions?
The metaverse has been in the works for a long time. The term “metaverse” was first used by American science fiction author Neal Stephenson in 1992, long before any of the platforms that we have today existed.
Having said that, despite the fact that we now possess more concrete concepts of the metaverse and its capabilities, it is still in its infancy. This indicates that important human concepts, such as death, that have a place in the real world are still evolving digitally.
Researchers like Cole Imperi are keeping an eye on the digital remains of human life online, and digital architects like Mariana Cabugueira are currently reimagining the future of digital cemeteries.
It’s possible that we will never know what happens after we die; However, we are getting much closer to the answer in the metaverse.
