Who hasn’t had this thought at some point: what if humans were immortal? At least in the movies we’ve seen it before. Somnium Space realizes this dream, especially in the Metaverse!
Metaverse is known to be a virtual world. Users can create so many things there. Everything from plots for sale to popular Metaverse avatars are available. Somnium Space is now taking it to the next level. In the near future, there will be a “live forever mode”. Yes, you heard right : Live forever!
“Literally, when I die and all this data is saved in advance, people or my children can enter the metaverse and talk to my avatar. You will meet a familiar person (after death) in the metaverse. Within the first 10 minutes of the conversation, you won’t realize it’s not that person, it’s the AI.”
According to Artur Sychov, artificial intelligence (AI) can also lead to better results in the metaverse as development progresses. Sychov is the CEO of Somnium Space.
Espace Somnium: just another online game?
The Somnium Space metaverse already exists. As one of the pioneers in the field of hardware implementation, the Metaverse experience is already possible with Microsoft’s Oculus Quest VR glasses. Like the big players Decentraland and Sandbox, user assets such as land or shoes can be purchased in a decentralized way via the Somnium marketplace. Except for the hardware integration, the project does not differ significantly from the usual Metaverse projects. If there was no Live Forever mode!
You may think this approach is somewhat irreverent. But listen to the whole story!
Sychov himself got the idea for the mode when an aggressive tumor was discovered in his father about 5 years ago. According to doctors, the prognosis for survival seemed poor. The thought that his children would grow up without any memory of their grandfather terrified him. The subsequent death of his father finally gave him the idea for Live Forever.
“People think the Metaverse is about NFTs and brands. But it’s not that. It’s much deeper.
With the live-forever mode, the company makes it possible to store data in the form of a person’s movements or sounds and bring them into the metaverse via AI. An avatar in the metaverse then embodies the stored data to enable smooth interaction. According to Sychov, the amount of data accessible by a person is 100 to 300 times greater than that which can be obtained with a standard smartphone. “Virtual technology can capture the movements of your fingers, your mouth, your eyes and your whole body. This allows a higher level of identification of a person than with fingerprints,” says Sychov.
Does it all sound too good (or too absurd) to be true? According to a study published in October 2020, researchers found that observing human movements for 5 minutes using virtual technology can identify someone with a 95% probability. And that with a group of 500 people!
So the idea of getting people out of data is no joke. At first, Somnium simply records the movements and sounds of people on their own Metaverse land. The first avatars should be available next year, but the quality should increase steadily over the years. It is quite conceivable to create significantly better avatars in the future with the data already obtained from a person. The development of AI plays an important role here.
Sychov is not worried about sensitive user data. As a decentralized company, Somnium does not sell any data to other companies. Somnium doesn’t care much about your name or what you do in real life. Additionally, Live Forever mode will only be available to those who pay money and explicitly consent to motion tracking etc.
The company can already proudly/ tragic report on the first use case. One of the Metaverse landowners has died suddenly. At the request of the family, Somnium gave the package to a friend who erected a memorial there for the deceased. Of course, we are excited to see how Somnium develops in the future and whether some famous personalities will come back to life.
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