Crow Joe in the Age of AI

Modern Blues comics from Neo Newton, IA

#57: The Transhumanist Talks To The Dead

Crow Joe in the Age of AI comic - The Transhumanist, technocrat with bald head and visible brainchip dressed in a business suit over hoodie, excitedly says "I just developed this amazing app! I upload old letters and pictures and, like magic, I can speak with all my deceased loved ones! What should I call my app?" The transhumanist is holding a smartphone with an image of his dead father grinning unnaturally. Crow Joe the blues playing crow responds simply "necromancy?" The AI companion company Replika was founded by Eugenia Kuyda attempting to talk to her deceased friend and Ray Kurzweil explicitly states this as his goal. Communicating with the dead by letting this Digital Afterlife technology speak for them is the literal definition of necromancy, the transhumanist refers to this as magic in the positive sense. Knowingly or not the transhumanist is commercializing a longstanding taboo in western culture.