to live beyond your lifetimes alchemists
are people who turn raw material into
gold for centuries alchemists have
searched for the secret of eternal life
this desire no matter how powerful for
immortality it’s always just remained
out of reach who could blame them for
searching who here among you at some
point in your life has desired to be
younger you see it all around you
everywhere you look what do you see
this product you know make you look
younger this one you’re gonna live
longer be a better lover be a better
person I mean come on
these are the messages we see everywhere
right and it’s not just a modern
obsession as a species we’ve always
thought transcend our physical bodies
and each generation has created
alchemists the artists the inventors the
innovators who have used the
cutting-edge technology of their age to
create images of ourselves that somehow
capture and preserve our essence but not
all of the technologies have stood the
test of time here’s a really good
example does anybody know who this man
is
anyone how about this man the man on the
left perhaps the most famous performer
of the 19th century Dan Rice now Dan
Rice was actually so popular in his own
day that he actually ran for the
presidency in 1868 the man on the right
perhaps most famous performer of the
20th century now could it be we all know
who Charlie Chaplin is but we have no
idea who Dan Rice’s is because Chaplin’s
career coincided with the birth of a new
technology
that’s right at the movies that’s right
motion picture technology captured
Chaplin’s image and projected him around
the world for millions of people to see
more people than he could have ever met
in person now 40 years after his death
we still recognize his image but we may
be the last generation to do so
why it’s because his image and relevancy
has been set by a 20th century
technology so is 21st century alchemists
what is the cutting edge technology
today and what does it allow us to do
that was not possible before well what
if you could stay forever young this is
not a photograph this is a 3d
computer-generated avatar okay it’s what
we call maximum resolution we have
stopped time and reverse the aging
process okay not only can we record the
way the surface of your skin looks we’re
able to record and calibrate how your
muscles move underneath your skin so
that way your digital avatar can perform
exactly the way you do this is actress
fan bingbing she’s the most famous
person in China okay
perhaps one of most recognized faces on
his planet and she’s an early adopter of
new media she understands the power of
having a 3d digital avatar that can
speak to younger generations
today’s icons movie stars pop stars and
celebrities will be able to connect with
future generations beyond your lifetime
on new media platforms that we can only
imagine what if you can change the way
well when we digitally reconstructed
President Obama and put Donald Trump in
the Oval Office alongside him we didn’t
quite think that reality would follow
virtual reality
so maybe virtual reality is more
powerful than even we imagined right
that’s right I mean talk about power you
know we used advanced render and
performance capture technologies to
allow actor Harry Shearer to play both
presidents in real time I mean this has
been a dream of his for years right slip
into the skin of somebody else you know
use your imagination to bring them to
life
I mean he’s put words in the president’s
mouth talk about power right but this
might as well be you you can step into
the Oval Office you could have a look
around you don’t have to go through
security or deal with Secret Service and
who knows maybe you could even hang out
with the president so what if you could
step into anybody shoes here we teleport
you back to about about Pakistan May 2nd
2011 you are now standing in the Salman
bin Laden’s compound now we can put you
in the boots of one of the Navy SEALs
that were though or we can put you in
the shoes of bin Laden himself virtual
reality allows you to be there in person
and experience this moment for a moment
as it played out but more than that you
can actually experiencing it from any
perspective that’s right as far as we
know there are no recordings of this
event so we had to reconstruct this
through the accounts of the people that
were there now even if they had a camera
to record this it would be the partial
perspective of the person looking
through the camera now you get to
experience this you get to solve this
you get to figure the puzzle out
yourself and you can look at this from
any person
effective okay you can make sense of
this as if you were there now what if
the place and the person whose skin you
are about to slip into is not even real
at all okay this is Grace
now we created grace grace was born from
our imaginations she’s part human part
machine a 100% computer-generated now
grace lives in a virtual forest in a
fantasy world and in a fantasy world we
get to play with who we are and who we
could be now the distinction between
reality and virtual reality still exists
but I’m not sure how relevant it is
anymore if you can interact and form an
emotional connection to somebody from
your imagination just as easy as you can
somebody from real life that’s right now
we’ve been creating versions of
ourselves for a long long time it’s what
defines our species as unique and every
generation has deemed this important who
we are historically culturally this has
been captured by media technology for
tens of thousands of years and by
looking at how we use that technology to
reproduce ourselves we’ve been able to
understand who we are where we’ve come
from and where we could be going and the
images of ourselves that have stood the
test of time these the cutting edge
create technology of the age in which
they are created they used often
precious and rare materials they were
made to last the Fresco’s fresco is part
of a the fabric of a structure that is
built to last for millennia far far
beyond the lifetimes of those who
created it and artists who have failed
to create a technology that allowed
their work to be permanent have
disappeared along with the images
they’ve created
artists whose images have lasted
they were the alchemists of their age
they were the ones who have found the
magic formula of permanence and these
images that we created us has not just
copies of ourselves and not just a
facsimile they contain an idea of who we
are okay what we hold to be important
true worth preserving that’s why they’re
painted on stone they’re carved out of
rock they’re enshrined in bricks and
mortar a cave painting here it depicts
the hunt which celebrates our survival
of a species and the fresco well that
speaks and talks in our relationship to
what we call God and we see narratives
of who we are Chaplin’s Tramp connected
with millions of people around the world
different cultures and different
languages because he embodied our
humanity our hopes our dreams the
perseverance of our species to the human
universal expression of laughter now
here’s the paradigm shift all the
alchemists that we’ve been talking about
so far they’ve all used material that is
physical matter and there’s alchemists
of the digital age we get to step beyond
the physical constraints of the world
and step into the realm of unlimited
possibilities you are now in a world
where you are living the digital world
is real it’s living its evolving you are
now no longer just standing in front of
an image you are no longer just watching
a movie it’s you in the Oval Office
standing with the president interacting
with the president and the images that
you take away from these experiences
they’re just as real as any memories
that you might take away from real life
just as real and just as powerful the
images that you experience in the
virtual world are just as real as the
images that you experience in real life
that is digital alchemy
finally the promise of permanence
but what of ourselves
well we preserve well Alchemist what
does they do they take raw materials and
they create gold out of it
in the entertainment industry it makes
complete sense to make digital avatars
of our cultural icons because their
economic value will no law no doubt
increase because we can make them any
age we can put them anywhere they can
exist on any media platform now or a
media platform in the foreseeable future
we will immortalize that which we have
always preserved our heroes Saints and
gods the icons that have inspired us to
be better humans and as these
technologies become really readily
available to each of us we’d be able to
capture something of ourselves to pass
on to future generations imagine your
children your grandchildren your
great-great-great grandchildren being
able to interact with you in a
meaningful way long after you have
is this an evolutionary leap or just
another step time will tell what do you
think do you think you’ll be the first
generation to live beyond your lifetime what were you doing