I don't want my life, the lives of my family vanish from the world as if we had never existed.
Biological immortality is a dream. A dream that is pursued by more people than ever thanks to the progress in science. However, there is no realistic outlook of achieving it currently.
The opposite is true for digital immortality. The idea of digital persons is nowadays quite widespread due to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
Therefore, I create digital records of our lives, digital personas, pursuit of digital immortality.
We all do that, in many ways, e.g. through social media. However, most of that is not serious and will fade into oblivion as have persons and records of the past. A serious pursuit of digital immortality is required which, indeed, has a realistic prospect nowadays. The serious pursuit comprises more than advancing techniques. It also requires a cultural evolution, intertwined with the technical advance. The natural idea among people that the deceased naturally live on - in some real and interacting way - in the digital world - an extension of the world of the living. Instead of - the current state of the cultural mind - a mostly unconscious believe that it is natural for the deceased to slowly fade into oblivion. Except for, in sharp contrast, a few celebrities whose rememberance is continued in an ever more mystified cult.
This is our challenge. How can this become reality? Again, there are many approaches around. Hobyists. New companies with agent models that can be trained to reflect a person. The prospect of a metaverse which could be populated by digital personas. Some ingredients seem clear. E.g., it can't be commercial but must be a common good. A natural digital extension of our living world. And, people must feel a reason to "talk" and interact with "ordinary" digital persons. This is the most important and challenging part. Nobody can "live on" if he is no longer socially interacting. How and why? This needs to explored.
A meta-aspect, a philosophical view remains: Is the digital live going to be just a trivial continuation of the meaningless hustle and bustle of our present world? Why should the future living pay attention to selfish and trivial jabber which today's people spread over social media? It won't work if there is no worthy content to offer. Most people should be able to offer this, too, but it requires a serious cultural evolution.