[mechanical_fish]

On the one hand, there's nothing new about the phenomenon you're talking about. Books, symphonies, paintings: Most of the famous ones are by people who are dead. We treasure these things, in part, because they are ways of connecting with such people across time.

The Tupac thing isn't so creepy either, once you get used to it. We in the audience know it's not really Tupac - after, all, if we thought it were a hologram of a living person it wouldn't have the same dramatic effect. We know it's a movie made by other people in honor of Tupac. It's only incrementally creepier than watching Tupac videos on YouTube or listening to his recordings, which are also the ghosts of someone who is dead.

In theory, one could be creeped out by the Mona Lisa because, geez, this four-hundred-years-dead woman is sitting there in front of you. But we got used to paintings years ago.

In the future, will people think it creepy to decorate their worlds with bots that can emulate long-dead people? It's hard to know in advance, but I think we might just get used to it. Van Gogh is dead, but reproductions of Van Gogh paintings are everywhere. Elvis is dead, but entire restaurants are full of Elvis memorabilia. We won't be consciously fooled - Elvis's biggest fans do know that Elvis is dead. And we might eventually get bored and tune out: Once you've heard the same tune a hundred times it just becomes part of the landscape, and similarly I think a Facebook bot that emulates a dead person will be just as pleasant as a Facebook bot that emulates a living person. ("Not very.") But maybe it will prove soothing to periodically have the words of dead people piped at you. People read Pepys's diaries. People read Mark Twain. People read the Bible.