Somnium Space offers a form of immortality in the metaverse

Somnium Space is offering the chance for people' immortality' in its metaverse even after they die in real life. The company is currently developing a new 'Live Forever' mode, a feature that lets people talk to their loved ones after they die.

Users who want to get this chance to 'live forever' would need to provide a big amount of personal data to Somnium Space. Users' conversations and movements will be stored as data, which is then duplicated as an avatar that moves and talks like them. 

The CEO and founder of Somnium Space, Artur Sychov, told Vice his plans to add the 'Live Forever' mode. "Literally, if I die—and I have this data collected—people can come or my kids, they can come in, and they can have a conversation with my avatar, with my movements, with my voice," said Sychov to Vice. 

He added: "You will meet the person. And you would maybe for the first 10 minutes while talking to that person, you would not know that it's actually AI. That's the goal."

According to Artur Sychov, the Live Forever mode was inspired by his father's death due to an aggressive form of cancer. He wanted to allow people to talk to their dead loved ones whenever they wished. This is centered on VR's remarkable data-gathering capabilities: it can collect information on how the fingers move, the way the eyes twitch, and the entire body, producing exact fingerprints in the process. 

Somnium Space has also teamed up with a company called 'Teslasuit,' a company that develops a full-body haptic suit for VR. Those who wear this suit will receive electrical signals comparable to human touch, as well as provide extra data due to a medical-grade biometric scanner that collects cardio and stress levels.

SOURCE: VICE