Soul ferry, digital resurrection.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “moonlight tank” (ID: moontank1918 ), the author Zhang Xiaomo. Original title “ soul ferry, product manager’s “resurrection”

Now our age, our ancestors are relatively old, when they are sick, even when we are separated from our heavens and humans, there is a kind of pain of powerlessness, and it will spread from the depressed heart in no time. Come out, sometimes wake up in a dream, tears burst out and soak the pillow.

As children and grandchildren, we still have such a life. If one of them goes with one person, when one of them leaves, how can another person live alone?

This kind of scene can’t hide, and we can’t hope that the technology of cloning and gene duplication, which seems to be “longevity”, can be commercialized in a short period of time, so if we only rely on today’s commercial technology, can we design? A product that makes the dead “permanent”?

At this moment, the product manager’s design is like a “soul ferry man” to complete the “soul ferry”, as if to display some kind of “returning soul”.

Let’s let us start this journey of designing brains.

1 Riding 1.0 Tour

Based on the reality of the brain, we have to admit some facts, such as the human body gradually declines with age, so the starting point of this product design is “digital resurrection.”

Digital resurrection is the digital collection of a person, including image data, text data, social relationships, sound collection, and other people’s memory information for the person, etc., through the comprehensive analysis and processing of the above data, using hardware The device simulates speech expressions, behaviors, and voice conversations that are highly similar to real people.

It’s like a smart speaker on the bedside, but this device has a person’s three views, memory and cognition, and has a voice that is the same as in the past.

Especially in the AI ​​era today, with the simultaneous growth of algorithms and computing power, “digital resurrection” can not only achieve the record of the past, but also allow intelligent devices to learn independently.

In other words, this smart device not only has the shadow of the past, but also can constantly learn about the current situation of the device user. In this way, is it a resurrection in a certain sense?

From the product framework, we can achieve this:

Can you design a product that will make the dead

According to the above frame diagram, we can see that the product consists of three parts, the information collection part, the background part (training background and application background), and the front-end application part (App and smart device).

1. Information Collection: Complete all kinds of information collection for “Resurrection Target”. From text, image, audio to video, all kinds of information related to “Resurrection Target” will be collected and classified and labeled. deal with.

2. Background: The training background performs algorithm training based on the acquired data, so that the product has the same or nearly the same “thinking mode” as the “resurrection target”, and the application management background is to implement the front-end application and The general management of the equipment is somewhat similar to the current CMS system.

3. Front-end application part: It can be presented in the form of an app in a lightweight manner, and can directly create a device such as a smart speaker.

At the same time, the front-end application is still a means to complete further information collection. The more users talk to the application device, the more data material that can be supplied for deep learning, and the more the application device is like human.

This type of product is more like a customized product, and it needs to be customized for each user for a long time, unless we can generalize the information collection and create an information gathering device for users. The process should be Relatively long.

It’s just that we are ferry in the world’s emotions or the memories of the deceased. Is such an AI product a technical scam?

2 Riding 2.0 Tour

Assuming the 1.0 approach is acceptable, the 2.0 version can further complete the “resurrection” scenario.

From a product perspective, there are two directions:

  • Flesh: Recreating a body, a mechanical skeleton, a simulated body;

  • Thought: No longer AI, but let the brain continue to work;

The imitation of the flesh is not too much to say. Regarding the thought part, the recent research progress on the brain-computer interface gives some reference for product design.

In the near future, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the press conference that “brain interface” research has been successful in primates, and Musk also said that Neuralink will focus on brain-computer interface technology. Implant electrodes in the human brain, connect the human brain to the computer, and upload and download ideas directly in the future.