By Beatrice Jeschek

How about a virtual alter ego after you lie six feet under? The Internet company Intellitar is soon launching the possibility to let users create an artificially intelligent representation of themselves – a clone that can keep contact with survivors posthumously.

It seems like the ultimate extention of life on earth: A digital clone, the embodiment of our thoughts, humour and secrets. When the medicine still ows the final step to eternal life, the digital world offers an alternative in ones and zeroes.

It sounds futuristic, far from reality. Will it not be weird to face a computer generated face of a deceased loved one? Like talking to streams of a ghost.

However, Intellitar (standing for Intelligent Avatar, the general term for the online clone) offers from Wednesday and onward the unique opportunity to save the essence of oneself on the web. The official website (fittingly called virtual eternity) will start operating – in the closest sense of the word, in forming a mirror appearance of the individual user. Its substance: Digital pixels, voice manufacturing and lots and lots of information.

An interpretation of how we influence our image presented to the world by artist Roy Lichtenstein ("Girl in the Mirror", 1964)

"The whole concept is legacy creation and preservations," said Don Davidson, the founder and CEO of Intellitar in an interview with Huntsville Times (where the company is based)."The idea is, I can use a number of technologies available and create a living legacy […] We want to give users the gift of immortality while giving future generations a sense of connection to their roots."

The voice of the digital clone goes beyond a simple recording of the user’s voice. It is synthesized and generates responses to questions. "An artificial intelligent brain drives it," Davidson said. "It has the ability to capture and maintain a virtually unlimited amount of content."

A screenshot of CEO Intellitar Don Davidson's digital clone

Creating an Intellitar, a representative piece of your personality, takes time. Accordingly, it can be trained through your whole lifetime. The more time you spend, the more similar and detailed the Intellitar will appear.

The company’s plan is to implement packages, like expert knowledge of the Second World War, if the user is interested in this. It could be sold as personality amplification – it has been there, the interest, like a grain of sand formed of unique knowledge, virtual seas of memories, and can be upgraded to impress offspring.

What makes a web copy so attractive?

Intellitar might have hit a nerve of the digital age. Skype has fueled long-distance relationships with the invaluable feeling of being close to each other by simulating face-to-face communication. Proximity is the key word here. What the web-based copy of ourselves offers is exactly this, faked proximity. It is also what the highly praised media scholar Marshall McLuhan described as an extention of the body (although he got more famous for his description of the global village).

Marshall McLuhan, March 1969, predicting future media possibilities

 In the straightest sense, the AI representation is a signature with the ability to express itself. It is like leaving a “living” diary with accustomed questions. What is not written (or rather programmed), cannot be read. This rule stays true also on the web.

Click here to play around yourself by interviewing Intellitar CEO Don Davidson's alter ego online.

This article was first published 20/10/2010 on maltastar.com.