Living in an AI world now....
Technology is advancing every single day and is doing the most wonderful things but there's something about witnessing AI holograms in the flesh that made me question what it means to be "real" ...
Recently we treated my mum to tickets for the ABBA Voyage in Stratford for her 70th birthday present recently. We went together the three of us, me, Alfie and my mum, a little 70's/80's pop throwback, hearing the music of my childhood played in a massive arena with thousands of people singing along. There was a live band playing then the ABBA group were presented to us as holograms. They looked so, so real.
What is a hologram?
According to lamastech.com "hologram technology is three-dimensional projection which can be seen without using any special equipment such as cameras or glasses. The image can be viewed from any angle, so as the user walks around the display the object will appear to move and shift realistically."
ABBA Voyage
The concert revisits ABBA at the height of their prime in the late 70's - same outfits, same style, same songs - and is essentially a recreation of what they'd have performed then but with digital holograms in their place. No human ABBA group members on the stage.
At times it was hard to distinguish between who was real and who wasn't - the way they were all incorporated together on the stage, holograms looking the exact same as the humans did. I remember actively thinking how incredibly real they looked at the time, even though we were sat enjoying the concert and focus was on the music, it was still enough to be a notable thing to comment on in the moment.
It did freak me out a little, not going to lie! Really makes you question how far technology will go, and how far it's already come.
I believe there are many different uses of holograms these days and I imagine they're of a huge benefit when used for things like medical training, where students would be able to get a good look inside the human body without having to use an actual human.
They're an amazing tool for education, for gaming even, and definitely have uses when it comes to envisioning projects at completion - being able to see a building as it would look before it's built, being able to configure infrastructure in planning, and so on - and to see holograms used in the flesh in entertainment really was a bucket list item crossed off.
What are your thoughts about holograms and the ever-advancing technology we seem to be getting more of at our finger tips with every passing day?
For me, I think there's a fine line that if crossed would be the point of no return. Yes I've seen I-robot and I'm not saying that's where we will get to but there's definitely that worry of technology advancing so much it becomes impossible to control. Or is that my tinfoil hat talking?