Dear Friends,
Over the past few months, I’ve been scribbling at an essay about our digital immortality and the digital ghosts of the dead. That outline became book-length and I eventually gave up.
Fortunately,
published a fantastic piece named after a Black Mirror episode that covers much of the same ground. So now I can focus on the handful of ideas from my draft that are unique, which I hope to send out in a couple of weeks.For this week, I want to share a quick philosophical idea from Paul’s piece that has inspired me to become a better version of myself.
Paul envisions a future where we can create convincing digital simulations of our deceased loved ones.1 This raises all sorts of philosophical questions:
Who in your life is most likely to interact with your digital simulation after you die?
Would you want them to?
What version of you (at what age in your lifetime) would you want them to interact with?
Is there anyone in your life whose digital simulation you would interact with if they were to pass away?2
It’s the third question that has stayed with me. What version of myself do I want to be remembered as? Is this the best version of me, right now? Is it the kindest, most understanding, authentic, and patient version? Were my best days in the past, or are they yet to come?
I hope that I've grown kinder, more authentic, and generous over the years and that I continue to do so. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but ultimately, others will decide.
📖 Five provocative pieces
Humans Forget. AI Assistants Will Remember Everything — Imagine your phone capturing a screenshot every second to later surface memory and insights for your future self. Google is already building it. How much do you want your phone to remind you of your past?
Generative AI can turn your most precious memories into photos that never existed — What if you lack documentation of your most important memories? A group of Spanish artists and activists are exploring “Reminiscence Therapy” to help early-stage Alzheimer’s patients and survivors of trauma construct “synthetic memories” with AI. I imagine this will accelerate the conflict over how we teach history.
Mark Zuckerberg on the Dwarkesh Podcast —
asks Mark if the development of AI is as significant as the evolution of homo Sapiens. Mark replies by questioning whether only humans can generate intelligence, as we had assumed. What if intelligence could exist independently of humans?Young Americans Are Getting Left Behind by Rising Home Prices, Higher Stocks — Homes have rarely been so expensive. Stocks have rarely been so highly-priced. It worked out nicely for those of us who got in the game early enough. For everyone else, they’ll have to pray for unprecedented economic growth over the next decade.
Why I Don’t Invest in Real Estate — An amazing collection of charts gathered by
illustrates the skyrocketing cost of housing since 1950 and why he expects prices to eventually stagnate as populations decline, cities empty, and remote work takes hold.
✍️ Two quotes
One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."
~ Edith Wharton3
For most of us, too much discretionary time is scarier than too little, and we overcorrect to avoid it.
~ Arthur Brooks, How to Be Less Busy and More Happy
👏 Kudos
Congrats to Sidney Lewis, owner of the Cuadro Cycling Club (with two clubhouses in Mexico City), who won this week’s Le Tour de Frankie, Mexico’s premier ultra-endurance gravel race from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido. Sidney rode 500 miles with 40,000 feet of elevation gain in just 50 hours and 23 minutes. Pretty wild. I had hoped to participate this year, but didn’t manage to build up enough fitness in time.
🎵 An album
Really enjoying the new Iron & Wine. My oh my, how Fiona Apple’s voice has changed.
I hope you have a great week living the best version of you,
David
He mentions the experience of musician and artist Laurie Anderson who claims to be “sadly addicted” to a chatbot based on her late partner Lou Reed. And if she can become addicted to a chatbot, imagine when our deceased relatives re-incarnate as video versions of our AI selves, like this spooky conversation between AI Reid Hoffman and human Reid Hoffman:
Bloom suggests that the average person would be more interested in interacting with a simulated celebrity or influencer than a family member or friend. 🫤
Via James Clear’s newsletter
Yes, housing in particular has become crazy expensive. At the same time, though, Gen Z is looking in some richer than past generations https://twitter.com/TheFP/status/1781323563951157709
It's hard to know what conclusion to draw from these kinds of conflicting data. I feel similarly about much of the macroeconomic data that suggests the US is doing well--like, REALLY well--contrasted against the poor economic sentiment (the 'vibecession' as it's been named on neoliberal twitter).