Now is the time for ghost making
Time is about right that some technology folks get serious about considering making ghosts of us.
What are ghosts? The entities without body but capable of doing a lot of deeds. Ghosts has been ascribed to lift items, eat food and do a lot of unpleasant things. Shifting goods from one place to another is a common deed ascribed to them.
"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" was published in 1871. Electric bulb was not discovered in usable form until 1880. Thus incandescent lamps were imagined way earlier in 1871, in the book above, than even usable electric bulbs arrived. The reality, in yesteryears, arrived a lot later than they were dreamed. The cell phone, internet and so called "Tech" has changed this timescale from dream to reality. Things are getting realized a lot faster, after they are being dreamed, although not in all spheres of activity.
Recent lockdown conditions have promoted a technology, that is, transmission of image and sound simultaneously. This ability or "video conferencing" is here for a long time now. In the 1990's the provincial head of state (termed Chief Minister) of Andhra Pradesh province in India, Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu started video conferencing with district collectors, which was very effective as a management tool for him then. So the ability of "video conferencing" has been there for a long time but it is not untill the current "lockdown" it gained currency and "zoom", "microsoft team" and "webex" gained familiarity and wide use. It now have reach to the ability of many not just a few.
The holography as a concept exists since 1948 (see patent GB685286). Volume and dynamic holographies are not concepts anymore. They have been used in practice including at circus successfully. The transmission of volume holograms and dynamic holography alongwith voice is poised to take us being ghosts.
Science is "the present verification of natural facts without ultimate certainty". Our understanding of biological world and systems are still at its infancy in some way. So vaporizing (current concept-should change with further gain in knowledge) all coordinate of bodies, transmission and assembly at another location is not out of bounds. However, our current knowledge is very limiting to achieve this right now. However, the ghost making is within reach or near reach.
Why we need ghost making? We can connect to our office desktops remotely. In my case I can connect to my office desktop and laboratory computers remotely but there are a lot of things that goes wrong occasionally and ability to send my ghost may be one step more towards operational flexibility. For one the ghosts can reach faster, do not have to think about getting biologically infected and both about parking, bother about finding bathroom or eatery for such needs.
Such ghosting-a volume holography with some abilities may require complementation of new types of device controls at every step of the way. Ghost compatible doors, machines, computers that may provide us ability to solve current glitches. It could also be the next frontier of "Tech" to advance. This could make ghosts real. However, like everything it will have pros and cons. I have heard argument provided as a song, roughly translated, "If the alcohol makes one intoxicated then it is the bottle storing alcohol would have danced". So ultimately there has to be a user resposibility for cons. However, I do believe this is a good time to seriously think about ghost making!