Why Holograms Scare me
Don’t get it twisted- if I were at Coachella and saw the Tupac hologram perform I would have danced my g.d. face off and had a cow. To experience Tupac. To pretend that he was real. To hear his fake ass talk to me in the crowd like he was still alive. I would have loved every last second of it because ARE YOU SERIOUS!?
But when reports surfaced recently that the hologram of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez, from TLC, might be going on tour with the two remaining members, I started to get a little worried. It feels like a slippery slope. Does it not? If we can digitally AND biologically clone a human being will we eventually NOT need human beings? Where is this going? Would these dead celebrities even want this?
Remember that last scene in the movie A.I.? When the aliens cloned little robot Haley Joel Osmett’s “mother” … but she could only last a day or whatever… And little robot Haley Joel Osmett, who felt real feelings, was comforted by this last day he shared with her… even though he knew it wasn’t “real”? That’s gonna be us people. Would you pay to see a deceased relative again in any form? To listen to them give you advice? Let it provide comfort to you perhaps? I mean, if it were an option would you have your dead grandparents “meet” your grandkids someday? Could this becomes a new type of therapy? A brand new industry? One that medicates with self delusion?
I’ve read about “The Singularity” movement and even fantasized about the day when I will no longer have to carry a wallet because it’ll be implanted into my skin. It’s all fascinating in theory. But this hologram thing, for me, represents a larger creepier reality. The decreased amount of human to human interaction. You can see it in how relationships evolve these days…so relient on text messaging and social media. We feel close to people because we experience their lives over the internet but when do we see these people face to face? Is it real? What does it mean? That we don’t even want to talk to each other on the phone any more? That we can sit for hours on our laptops, ipads, phones and not even have to go outside if we don’t want to. That having our phone off or left at home causes severe anxiety in some? Yes, I know I digress, but it all feels like the same thing.
That’s why I want people to relax with the holograms for a second. I want us all to take a moment to enjoy our video phones and internet before we have to worry about scary Terminator style robot take overs. Or bringing back dead people virtually. I mean, we can totes enjoy the sweet sweet functionalities of this world… but let’s not do the Google glasses… And dead hologram icons touring…And maybe Bieber holds off on his performance with hologram Elvis… And I want boys to start calling on the phone again. Is any of that too much to ask?
