Your Virtual Clone - MyCyber Twin

The website “MyCyber Twin” was launched in 2007 by Dr John Zakos and Liesl Capper. They combined many years of experience within the fields of Psychology and information technology to make the site a reality. The site is a virtual reality realm that allows you to create a clone of yourself that will interact with your family, friends and colleagues online on your behalf. This clone or twin learns how to represent you in the most accurate way by being exposed to such things as your emails, blogs, chats, and IM conversations. The more you expose your “twin” to your virtual life, the more it becomes you. As the “about” page of MyCyber Twin says: “Whether your friends want to have fun chatting to your CyberTwin or whether you are a busy professional or company with people wanting to talk to you, let your CyberTwin chat for you! It’s a great way to let your personality shine on the web, get your message out there, promote your product, run a survey or have FAQs answered, in a humanized and natural way”.

I really don’t see how a digital clone can be “humanized” but that’s the angle promulgated by this site. My thinking is that the degree to which we are becoming digitalized and therefore disarticulated from the real world is really something to be concerned about. I believe that this site and similar digital outfits have their purpose and their place but not at the expense of “real world” human interaction. But since the line between the “virtual” and the “real” world has become so blurred, I may just be beating a dead horse right now.