This is a wonderful conversation with a deeply thoughtful and insightful artist, Luca Fogale. He is a Canadian singer/songwriter who hails from Burnaby, British Columbia. He's been twice nominated for Juno awards (Best Adult Contemporary Album). We discussed Luca's explorations of psychoolgical experience: the tension between light and dark, between apathy and optimism; we explored the therapeutic role that creative practice plays for him; we discussed the necessity of dropping of the ego, yet all the while recognizing that creativity comes from self; we talked about virtue and develping character, developing a better and more virtuous future self. In large part the conversation was about courage and a faith in moving forward. All in all, he's a delightful human being and it is a heart-warming and uplifting conversation.

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!