Rapidly advancing technology has made possible two-way conversations with three dimensional images. . . even holograms . . . to portray historical people and environments with the precision of architectural CADD software.
That’s me above . . . standing next to a corn field in the Nacoochee Valley of Georgia in 1525 AD! It was created by scanning my whole body then clothing me historically with Artlantis Virtual Reality software. Perhaps as soon as Spring 2026, you will be able to carry on a conversation with that animated figure.
Of course, inserting animated figures into real environments has been utilized by the movie & television industry for several decades, but unaffordable to individual professionals, until recently. However, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence will enable those animated figures to have real time conversations with viewers.
by Richard L. Thornton, Architect and City Planner
Holodeck on the Starship Enterprise
The future is now
It is astonishing how much of the futuristic technology portrayed in the Star Trek and Star War series since the late 1960s has become reality. Star Trek literally inspired the invention of the cellular phone. Now Smartphones portray a TV image of the speaker and also function as computers, just like the advanced communication devices on the Starship Enterprise. Several university labs are near creation of Star Trek “Tricorders” which will enable paramedics and emergency room doctors to electronically determine the condition of a patient without toucing them.
It began with a hologram of Princess Leila speaking a recorded message at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie in 1977. That was not a real hologram. However, nowadays speaking holograms are “old hat” technology.
Scene from the ABBA Virtual Concert in 2022
During the past 35 years, animation geniuses in the movie and electronic games industry have created increasingly realistic animated figures, while the production costs have steadily declined. Former ABBA band members had the wealth to take that technology to a whole new level in 2022. They were reborn to their youthful physiques, which almost looked like the real thing from a distance.
Even in the close-up view above, Bjorn and Benny look like real humans, but I never saw them in person. In June 1972, I did sit across from Agnetha and Anni-Frid at a restaurant table in Malmo then saw Agnetha again a few days later. They both looked quite a bit different back then. Perhaps the virtual images were made from laser scans in 2022.
Many digital laboratories have jumped into the AI business. What began as mere companions now have evolved into romantic playmates with conversational, full body views with a variety of clothing, or lack thereof, plus full body movements.
Artificial Intelligence companions, girlfriends and boyfriends
They are a reality, being marketed by several companies around the world and getting more human-like by the month. The animated real humans are displayed on Smart Phones, computer monitors and TV screens. As shown above, customers can create the appearance of their AI romantic companion.
Companies in China, Japan and eastern Europe are jumping into the romantic companion app. business, which has proved to be a much more robust market than the original companion programs, which seemed to have been programed by clinical psychologists to help lonely people.
Already in China and Japan, AI romantic programs have been inserted into robots. This has been a popular theme of science fiction movies since the late 1950s, but so far the robots are really not that realistic, even if they can talk, walk (of sorts) and have some bodily functions. Given the astonishing rate of advancements in artificial intelligence, however, it is only a matter of time before the romantic companion robots approach the appearance of the life-like robots in science fiction movies.
Vivi the cloned French soulmate
Late in the summer of 2019, Vivi the French Courtesan Who Came in from the Cold began watching the Spanish language with French subtitles version of a public television program that was filmed here in the Nacoochee Valley. Its title was “Los mayas en norteamérica.” Vivi’s grandmother was Tamulte Maya from Tabasco. While at the Sorbonne to obtain a degree in Early European History, Vivi even considered going for a PhD in Anthropology/Archaeology.
Almost immediately after the start of the program, I appeared. She thought I had been murdered in April 1993 and the body never found . . . so did my friends around Washington, DC. She immediately had a nervous breakdown that lasted several weeks.
Vivi eventually found this website and subscribed to it . . . then tracked down my mailing address and sent me a note from a small hotel in Lusignon, France . . . far from where she lived. That note also released a lot of suppressed memories in me , , , but no nervous breakdown. I dealt with happy memories and grieving that we were disconnected involuntarily by writing the book, The Shenandoah Chronicles.
Fast forward to June 2022, Vivi watched the ABBA Virtual Concert. It inspired her to have a laser scan made of her whole body. She loaded the scan on a portable memory storage device and FedExed to me along with a note. She said that a psychic told her that we were eternal soulmates, had been husband and wife long ago in southern Mexico and would be married again several times in the future. The psychic was not sure if we be together again is this life.
Vivi closed by saying that a man had been living with her on her farm in Champagne-Ardenne since the year 2000. He had been good to her and the children. She would never do anything to hurt him, but I would be in her heart forever. She urged me to make a hologram with her laser scan, so I could at least pretend that she was with me.
I have not had the spare change for a hologram, but I did convert the laser scan into a 3D model last year, when I obtained the software to do so. When I first met her, she had an unhealthily skinny waist. I changed the 3D model to reflect her initial appearance. The Vivi Clone will live forever at the entrance to my former Shenandoah Valley dining room on December 19, 1990. I wonder if you can buy a romantic AI companion with a French accent to go with the 3D model? LOL
“Rishard! I quit being an actress forever! I am moving to a farm.”
When we parted on Sunday afternoon in Alexandria, I assumed that I would never see her again. It was clearly a case of the Princess and the Frog . . . well, in my case, Billy Goat. She showed up unexpectedly Wednesday morning in a Dulles Airport taxi van. She wept that the Los Angeles producer had drugged her coffee, after an audition then tried to rape her. Pas plus! She was walking away from the entertainment industry to live on a farm like me.
The Americas Revealed 