June 05, 2003
Virtual presence app..
The killer app is going to be that tool that keeps us around even after we're dead. It won't need to be AI, and it won't even need to be us. All it'll have to be is a semantic database of all of our information. I will be able to continue telling you stories even after I'm dead. It won't be me of course, because I'm not longer present on this earth (hypothetically speaking), but that is no longer a problem (for you). More than being able to tell stories, we're this close to being able to ask and answer questions even though neither of us is present. I can have a script go out each hour and ask a bunch of questions... if there were another script somewhere that was able to interpret those questions and answer them for my script, then it makes absolutely no difference who's online or even who's alive. Information is travelling in this data-centric world and it has shed itself of its mortal vehicle, us.
From Eric Benson's Blog
(Thanks Leonard!)
