This was a fascinating discussion about a challenging topic: Miles Spencer's 'Reflekta: - an AI generated avatar of one’s deceased loved ones. We explored the thorny ethical issues of whether this will prevent people from full acceptance and/or grieving successfully. This led to the distinction between sadness as accepted loss and grief as no-yet-accepted loss. We explored likely family issues about which is the 'true' reflection of people who have passed. We also agreed that everyone does grief differently and this resource may well be cathartic and help people build on their relationships with deceased loved ones. We also explored the other applications for Reflekta: for people to create their own Reflekta legacies before dying and for a range of uses in aged care homes. All in all, this fruitful discussion posed as many interesting questions as it answered.

My guest on today’s episode is Miles Spencer who’s done so much in his life it is hard to summarise! He has founded, financed, built and exited three digital media companies and his new startup, Reflekta, is the subject for this podcast. Reflekta is an ai-driven platform for interactions with one’s deceased loved-ones.
The big picture is that Reflekta moves beyond existing digital tools in assisting those in grief or helping to counter memory loss, to more celebratory interactions such intergenerational storytelling and legacy building. Behind this is a philosophy of ‘Soul Tech’ or human centred AI. Topics discussed included: The benefits for storytellers in creating their own legacy reflections (including for those who may have dementia or are near end of life); The benefits for family and loved ones in terms of comfort, resilience and having a growing resource throughout life; Growing one’s relationship with a deceased loved-one; The distinction between grief therapy and legacy-based interactions; The distinction between reflections and attempted simulations; Promoting tradition and legacy for subsequent generations; The broader social benefits of the passing down of wisdom at scale; Discussion of the thorny ethical questions involved - including the guardrails established by Reflekta to try to deal with these.
All in all, probably a conversation to follow up when there is more water under the bridge for this very new Reflekta!

A wonderful podcast with musician Jake Isaac led to an equally wonderful roundtable with my friends from Nettwerk Music. We began with a discussion of creativity as communal experience. This led to the insight that this is the opposite of being precious or needing to be validated. Rather, music is a driving for connection and, for Jake Isaac, a quintessentially sacred experience. We also discussed suffering as a road to deep learning - which then morphed into a conversation about wellbeing and contentment as the natural consequence of being attuned to reality. Finally, we explored the live environment, jamming, improvising and creative interaction and concluded it is a type of public conversation. When done authentically, it converys a unique expressiveness and brings about a miracle of communication: that I am not alone in my experience. This reflects Isaac’s philosophical ground in ‘Ubuntu’: ‘I am because we are’.