Earlier this year, a short clip of a documentary emerged on YouTube showing a mother getting “reunited” with her deceased daughter using VR, and needless to say it’s quite the emotional rollercoaster.
The documentary in question is “I Met You,” produced by South Korean company Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). It shows Jang Ji-sung interacting with a virtual avatar of her daughter who passed away from leukemia in 2016 at the age of six. While the focus is on Jang and her virtual daughter, the camera frequently cuts to her husband and three other children – as well as the teary-eyed crew members – who are sitting in-studio watching the events unfold.
While the cynic in us might question the validity of this entire production and the extent to which it was a genuine story and interaction (they’d all be stellar actors if that were the case), it still raises some pretty fascinating ethical questions about using VR for this kind of thing in the future.
And of course, it really is an emotional thing to witness. Jang can hardly form sentences through her weeping as she is reunited (sort of) with her child after fours years. However, it becomes really fascinating once you step back, wipe away your tears, and properly think about what you’re looking at.
Resurrection Through VR – An Ethical Dilemma
This clip has since gone viral, accumulating almost 20 million views and, inevitably, some pretty polarized comments from viewers. While most of them seem simply to be expressing immense sadness and sympathy, some are concerned with how disturbing it actually is, both for Jang and themselves. This is where the real meat of the matter lies: is it a good idea for us to be able to “resurrect” our deceased loved ones using VR?
Opinions will of course vary drastically. One of the most prominent concerns would likely be that the thing you’re interacting with is exactly that – a thing. It’s stiff, unnatural, and – besides its appearance – is simply incomparable to the real person. If you look at the video clip, although the young girl is convincingly three-dimensional, her actions and dialogue still feel very one-dimensional, and quite obviously devoid of that which makes a human, a human.
So for many people, seeing this “imposter” standing before them wearing a mask of their loved one, might actually do more psychological bad than good.
VR Is (Virtually) Real
On the other hand, though, just look at this interaction between Jang and her very-obviously-not-real daughter. Despite the latter being true, despite her one-dimensionality, the fact that her sister observing the whole thing says “The face is a little different,” and that Jang reaches out to touch her child only for her hand to phase straight through her, it’s somehow still convincing enough for the distraught mother.
This points to another fascinating thing about VR: even if the virtual environment isn’t too realistic itself – perhaps even cartoonish – people can still feel utterly immersed. This must be because the sensory input and overwhelming sense of presence within a VR environment eclipses one’s logical understanding that this isn’t real, even just for a moment or two. And of course, emotions have a lot to do with that.
So this leaves us with a whole lot of questions relating to the future of VR as used for this kind of thing. We can already say with confidence that VR technology is only going to get more sophisticated, and that means the likelihood of virtually resurrecting passed loved ones that are more convincingly real (say, by assigning them more sophisticated AI) is far from impossible.
Should this kind of “digital necromancy” have a place in our future? Is it a healthy means of gaining closure where that might not have been possible in real life? Or does it pose a potentially harmful means of keeping someone alive indefinitely, in a way that prevents the natural grieving and acceptance process?
Regardless, it’s quite remarkable that we’re at the stage of even asking these kinds of questions.
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