www.usatoday.com: On the most recent season of HBO’s Westworld, one of the Native American characters offers a rumination on immortality. “You live only as long as the last person who remembers you,” counsels Akecheta, a Ghost Nation elder.
There has always been a romance to living forever, even after one’s physical body dies. Artists, authors, actors, and athletes all strive for immortality, hoping their words and deeds live on to influence people in the future.
4 comments:
The idea of leaving a legacy is a big controversy in human lives due to our short period of time on Earth. People obsess over the idea of being remembered and strive to do things in order to make sure that their time is used to shape the world even after they're gone. With advances in technology and a growing fear of death among people leads to the preservation of life’s events through any means necessary. Entertainers and Celebrities have it the worst as they are seen as today’s heroes and tomorrow’s headline. Like Roy Orbison, a lot of dead artists are used for profit. The Tupac hologram at Coachella in 2012 and a Michael Jackson hologram at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards. In their lives, these people were innovators and touched the hearts of music lovers everywhere. After their death, the media thinks what better way to honor them than to capitalize off of their legacy? While this may please someone who can’t stop watching the Thriller video, it doesn’t allow room for new growth and new artists in the industry.
This is very much an opinion piece, but certainly an opinion I agree with. I feel that it is wrong to use the image of a dead person without their permission, especially for profit. This is another instance of technology moving faster than our laws can be enacted. We are seeing this now with Facebook gathering information on people for years, even conducting experiments without consequence or with the blueprints for 3D-printed guns coming out. We simply don't have laws governing this kind of issue. This matter of deciding what a dead person would want for themselves can be covered through power of attorney and wills, but it is still a very gray area as most people aren't able to cover every possible situation in these documents. People argue whether Michael Jackson would have allowed his unfinished music to be released, and I personally believe that intellectual property, which includes a person’s image as a performer, is private and shouldn’t be freely dispersed posthumously, even by the person’s family.
While I do not agree completely with the author's point, I do think they made some valid points. However, I feel the validity of many of their arguments is lost because they immediately project what is currently happening to the most extreme "what-if" scenarios, e.g. "Martin Luther King, Jr. yelling “Make America Great Again!” in a Donald Trump campaign ad." Find me the person in the King family who would approve this use of their ancestor's image and maybe I will find it less of a ridiculous and alarmist take on this use of technology. I do believe this type of technology should be used very sparingly and only when it genuinely adds to a new story/work, rather than just rehashing old material over and over again. I find the idea Roy Orbinson hologram odd and slightly off-putting, I agree with Briana that it does take space away from new and emerging artists, however, I do not find it morally reprehensible in the way the author seems to. For anyone who bothered to read about the use of Peter Cushing's image in Star Wars: Rogue One, they would know that it was done because of the power that character holds in the Star Wars universe, with permission from the Cushing estate, and with the greatest respect for Cushing. As someone currently studying Computer Science, I resent being generalized as a “keyboard-banging ghoul” as though programmers have no artistic integrity or sensitivity to anything other than their bottom line. Overall, I find this article to be a catastrophizing and technophobic take on some genuine concerns that arise with this new development in entertainment technology.
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