[azinman2]

Except no matter how good it is, it will only reinforce that it’s not real and that he’s gone. Perhaps that’s the therapy he needs to move on?

Note: this is different from listening to recordings from the actual person.

Having loved ones die is one of life’s universal terrible qualities.

[AbbasHaiderAli]

I think it would be cathartic to talk to someone you trusted but who is now gone. There's been decision points over the last few years where I would love to have just said my thoughts out loud to my dad and just have him nod and ask a couple of open ended questions so I could get it out. No specific guidance needed, just his particular style of listening.

Clearly losing someone and being able to deal with it is an important life skill but just as we build technology powered aids for other situations, I don't think this would be any different

[pmoriarty]

"I think it would be cathartic to talk to someone you trusted but who is now gone."

It would be cathartic, but in this case you wouldn't be talking to them but to a computer, who (at best) is pretending to be them.

I think it's kind of creepy, when you really think about it, and it reminds me of the aversion the creator of Eliza had to his creation when he found out that people were spilling their guts out to it and treating it as a real person.

Which isn't to say that it can't be helpful to talk to something that's not a real person (and especially not a formerly living person you once knew) can't be healing. But if people get confused by these machines in to thinking the machines are actually people close to them that died and are now living again, that will make them vulnerable to some really serious manipulation and delusion.

[AbbasHaiderAli]

Fair point

[bsanr2]

I think a lot of people's passions are driven by a hole in their heart, that they hope their work will help fill somehow. I suspect that no small amount of the enthusiasm for XR is due to a deep and abiding desire to be someone else, somewhere else, among the people developing or early-adopting for it. Of course, it doesn't have to be so high-tech; much non-profit or social work is prompted personal experience with the presence, or lack thereof, of the service being rendered.

In the end, I don't know if any of that works. But what's being subscribed doesn't seem too far outside the norm. Deprivation often leads to desperation for even a taste, however imperfect it may be.