Last year a company called 2Wai
had its viral moment
when it put out an ad
showing a pregnant woman
talking with her mother by videochat,
getting advice, as one does,
on pregnancy and parenthood.
The ad skips to ten months later,
when the same woman,
now with her new child,
is again talking
by videochat to her mother,
who tells the child a bedtime story
that had delighted the woman
when she herself was a child.
If you’re paying attention,
you notice that the grandmother
is wearing the same outfit she had worn
in the first conversation,
which is strange, but, whatever…
The ad then skips to ten years later,
and the baby is now a boy,
talking with his grandmother on the phone
as he walks home from school,
sharing with her about his basketball team
and his latest crush.
You notice that the grandmother
is not only wearing the same outfit
as in the previous videochat,
but does not seem to have aged
in the past decade.
The ad then skips to thirty years later,
and the boy is now a man,
talking with his grandmother on his phone—
still in the same outfit,
still unchanged by time—
telling her that she is becoming a great-grandmother,
getting from her the same advice on parenthood
that had been given to his mother many years before.
had its viral moment
when it put out an ad
showing a pregnant woman
talking with her mother by videochat,
getting advice, as one does,
on pregnancy and parenthood.
The ad skips to ten months later,
when the same woman,
now with her new child,
is again talking
by videochat to her mother,
who tells the child a bedtime story
that had delighted the woman
when she herself was a child.
If you’re paying attention,
you notice that the grandmother
is wearing the same outfit she had worn
in the first conversation,
which is strange, but, whatever…
The ad then skips to ten years later,
and the baby is now a boy,
talking with his grandmother on the phone
as he walks home from school,
sharing with her about his basketball team
and his latest crush.
You notice that the grandmother
is not only wearing the same outfit
as in the previous videochat,
but does not seem to have aged
in the past decade.
The ad then skips to thirty years later,
and the boy is now a man,
talking with his grandmother on his phone—
still in the same outfit,
still unchanged by time—
telling her that she is becoming a great-grandmother,
getting from her the same advice on parenthood
that had been given to his mother many years before.
By this time you realize that all along
his “grandmother” in an AI avatar
that his mother created
before he was ever conceived,
using a mere three minutes of video
that she had the foresight to record,
an avatar that is a product you can purchase.
2Wai’s CEO posted the ad with the question
“What if the loved ones we’ve lost
could be part of our future?”
He probably should have added:
as long as your keep
your subscription paid up.
his “grandmother” in an AI avatar
that his mother created
before he was ever conceived,
using a mere three minutes of video
that she had the foresight to record,
an avatar that is a product you can purchase.
2Wai’s CEO posted the ad with the question
“What if the loved ones we’ve lost
could be part of our future?”
He probably should have added:
as long as your keep
your subscription paid up.
We human beings
like to distract ourselves
from the fact that we will die,
that our loved ones will die,
that the institutions and causes
to which we devote our lives will die.
We distract ourselves with games
both trivial and serious:
with hobbies and entertainment,
with politics and empire building.
And when we can distract ourselves no longer
we try to convince ourselves that death is a problem
that our technology will one day fix,
consoling ourselves with the hope
that immortality is within our grasp.
Yet these distractions and consolations
are simply a sign that, in some sense,
we are already dead,
because we live lives that are shaped
by the fear of death,
and by our schemes for ignoring it
or evading it.
like to distract ourselves
from the fact that we will die,
that our loved ones will die,
that the institutions and causes
to which we devote our lives will die.
We distract ourselves with games
both trivial and serious:
with hobbies and entertainment,
with politics and empire building.
And when we can distract ourselves no longer
we try to convince ourselves that death is a problem
that our technology will one day fix,
consoling ourselves with the hope
that immortality is within our grasp.
Yet these distractions and consolations
are simply a sign that, in some sense,
we are already dead,
because we live lives that are shaped
by the fear of death,
and by our schemes for ignoring it
or evading it.
“Whoever finds his life will lose it.”
Whoever finds his life
through diversions that distract us
from the inevitable reality of death,
will lose that life.
Whoever finds her life
through a technological fix
that promises to halt the flow of time,
will lose that life.
Whoever finds his life
through some app on his phone
that can make his long-dead grandmother
an ongoing part of his life,
will lose that life.
Because in all these cases
the life you think you’ve found
is not life but a simulation of life.
For life, by its nature, is fragile and risky;
and this fragility and risk is a sign
of our essential dependence on God
and our dependence on each other.
Whoever finds his life
through diversions that distract us
from the inevitable reality of death,
will lose that life.
Whoever finds her life
through a technological fix
that promises to halt the flow of time,
will lose that life.
Whoever finds his life
through some app on his phone
that can make his long-dead grandmother
an ongoing part of his life,
will lose that life.
Because in all these cases
the life you think you’ve found
is not life but a simulation of life.
For life, by its nature, is fragile and risky;
and this fragility and risk is a sign
of our essential dependence on God
and our dependence on each other.
But there is another choice.
We can die.
“Whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it.”
Whoever is buried with Christ
through baptism into his death,
will find life.
Whoever takes up his or her cross
and follows after Christ,
will find life.
Whoever prefers the love of Christ
to that of father or mother
or son or daughter
or even AI avatar grandma,
will find life.
We can die.
“Whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it.”
Whoever is buried with Christ
through baptism into his death,
will find life.
Whoever takes up his or her cross
and follows after Christ,
will find life.
Whoever prefers the love of Christ
to that of father or mother
or son or daughter
or even AI avatar grandma,
will find life.
This losing of your life
might involve physical death.
Down through the centuries
and in many places today,
to follow Jesus is to risk being killed.
But it often takes less dramatic form.
To lose your life may be to live it
without the consoling distractions
that allow you to ignore
the essential fragility of life,
that divert you from the truth
that life is risky and always involves loss,
always involves dependence
on God and each other.
To lose your life is to live it
without the comforting illusion
that there is or soon will be a technological fix
that can restore lost loved ones to us
and us to them.
To lose your life is to see it
no longer centered on yourself,
but recentered on Jesus,
crucified and risen,
living eternally for God.
might involve physical death.
Down through the centuries
and in many places today,
to follow Jesus is to risk being killed.
But it often takes less dramatic form.
To lose your life may be to live it
without the consoling distractions
that allow you to ignore
the essential fragility of life,
that divert you from the truth
that life is risky and always involves loss,
always involves dependence
on God and each other.
To lose your life is to live it
without the comforting illusion
that there is or soon will be a technological fix
that can restore lost loved ones to us
and us to them.
To lose your life is to see it
no longer centered on yourself,
but recentered on Jesus,
crucified and risen,
living eternally for God.
Hear the good news:
You have died with Christ in baptism.
This news is good because it means
that the thing you fear most,
the thing looming over your life
that you seek to evade or avoid,
is something that you have already
lived through in Christ.
Paul says, “death no longer
has power over him.”
And death no longer
has power over you,
for you have been raised with him
and are now free to follow him
on the way of the cross.
You are freed to live a life
that is fragile and risky.
You are freed to live a life
that depends on the generosity
of God and of each other.
You have died with Christ in baptism.
This news is good because it means
that the thing you fear most,
the thing looming over your life
that you seek to evade or avoid,
is something that you have already
lived through in Christ.
Paul says, “death no longer
has power over him.”
And death no longer
has power over you,
for you have been raised with him
and are now free to follow him
on the way of the cross.
You are freed to live a life
that is fragile and risky.
You are freed to live a life
that depends on the generosity
of God and of each other.
We have no need for diversions
to shield us from death’s reality.
We have no need of avatars
who promise us eternity.
We only need Jesus
and his cross and resurrection.
May God in his mercy
have mercy on us all.
to shield us from death’s reality.
We have no need of avatars
who promise us eternity.
We only need Jesus
and his cross and resurrection.
May God in his mercy
have mercy on us all.
