Today more data is being collected and digitised about ourselves then ever through our social media updates, emails, work documents, blogs writings and more. With subvocalisation technology set to take off within the next 10 years or so, I imagine many of us recording a personal constant stream of consciousness, some to share, some for our own benefit. If this seems implausible to you, I recommend watching the excellent presentation from Tom Scott entitled ‘2030: Privacy’s Dead. What happens next?’ which ask the question of 2030 — ‘Are teenagers becoming psychic?’.

Raising avatars of the dead is not brand new territory, having been tackled nicely in Black Mirror and some other works of science fiction. Futurist Ray Kurzweil keeps his father’s possessions and writings stored for this very purpose. Many people today will have their parent’s photos and writings available to provide a potentially comforting such simulation.

But what if rather than bringing back ourselves or loved ones, we focused on historical figures with large bodies of work to draw up of which we could reconstruct a partial personality as well as major works to produce an interactive avatar?

In Star Trek: TNG, there is a short exploration of this where an inferior therapist Sigmund Freud is constructed on the holodeck, and attempts to construct Sherlock Homes’ nemesis James Moriarty or a security specialist in Bablyon 5 inevitably feature the construct turning on its creator in a time-honoured fashion.

Of course, the ability to creation a passable simulation of a person, especially an influential person would change much of society as we know it. Why speculate whether Winston Churchill could lead today’s Conservative party when you could ask his simulation — capable of giving an answer synthesised from every element of Churchill’s writings, accounts and information on upbringing? What would Gandhi do about the Middle East or today’s India/Pakistan’s tensions? Would Alexander the Great’s opinions help Putin annex more of Ukraine?

With religious figures, even more is as stake. How would a sophisticated virtual Mohammed react to the ‘Islamic’ state of today? Would Jesus 2.0 be a Republican or a Democrat and would he be a shoe-in for Pope?

These are questions we are only a few years away from finding out the answers to. You think we venerate our ancestors now? Just wait until they start sharing their opinions.

In the mean time, we are left with rudimentary simulations of God on Twitter and philosophers in webcomic form. #YOLO?