News
‘Final Fantasy’ gamers hold online funeral for player who died of COVID-19 // Globalnews.ca
Back in April of 2020 an online funeral procession held within the online game Final Fantasy XIV for a player who died from complications related to coronavirus. The open sharing of grief and good memories was observed by hundreds of thousands, both in-game and recorded footage. There was no official count of how many people attended but the unofficial tally was said to have thousands of participants.
Metaverse Company to Offer Immortality Through ‘Live Forever’ Mode // Vice
Somnium Space is developing a platform to that creates simulations of loved ones after they have they die. Using machine learning and a very large amount of data they will attempt to create an interactive avatar with the voice and personality of your loved one. There are a lot of ethical concerns with this, and hopefully will continue the conversation around memorializing the dead with dignity.
Reading
Age of the Living Dead: Personality Rights of Deceased Celebrities // Alberta Law Review
The legal challenges posed by VR and machine learning are truly ones that could not have been envisioned when laws were put into place surrounding the rights of the deceased. Copyright and defamation laws cover some aspects of this complex legal area topics such as likeness were never fully considered as there were no holograms in the early 19th century. This article is a good read to get a handle of what is currently in place and where the law starts to fall short. Though this is centered around the law in Canada every country will be facing similar issues in the not too distant future.
Gear
Mykiea Legacy Smart Tombstone
Mykiea's patent pending headstone replaces a real world headstone and brings connectivity and location tracking to your love one's physical grave site. This solve locating a burial plot with GPS (something most of us have struggled with), and adds additional conveniences that adding technology to the grave marker. We're not sure how scheduled flower delivery works in a cemetery but is a nice gesture to show that you miss your loved one.
People To Watch
Remember Metaverse | Place for the loved ones
In the NFT space this group has created a mintable commemorative marker that lives on the Ethereum blockchain. These grave markers are meant to help memorialize those who have passed in the real world within the Metaverse, and will eventually be available in virtual cemeteries on multiple platforms. There is an OpenSea collection is currently available but if you were looking for a custom minted marker that doesn't appear to be open at this time.
Videos
Upload - Season 1 // Amazon Video
This positively reviewed comedy series (88% on Rotten Tomatoes) is set in a virtual world where the departed can live out a virtual afterlife. The scenario leads to some interesting situations and was a surprisingly light way to introduce the concept to a broad audience. We're hoping that the second season keeps the same energy as the first.
Commentary
Death is a part of life, and when those whom we've shared our lives pass on it's only natural to mourn and memorialize them. Within the Metaverse this goes beyond older online graveyards for people who stopped gaming and even further beyond what funerial professionals may have been able to imagine as even their industry is not beyond disruption by the future of technology.
This issue we are highlighting how those who have passed away are memorialized. Though there are some cemetery themed experiences (like the Cemetery in Decentraland) we're not focusing any gaming experiences, those are better shared in Halloween issues (see issue 50).
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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