Six Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Mondays, December 1, 2025- January 5, 2026
7:30 - 9:00pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Artificial intelligence is changing not only how we live, but also how we die—and how we are remembered. This six-week course examines the emergence of “digital ghosts:” AI-generated replicas of the dead that promise to keep memory alive while raising profound psychological and ethical questions.
We will begin by situating these technologies within humanity’s long struggle against mortality. From the pyramids of Egypt to the reliquaries of medieval saints, humans have always sought to preserve presence beyond death. The 19th century introduced new media into this struggle: daguerreotypes of the deceased, spirit photographs, and séances conducted with the aid of mediums. Today, AI memorial chatbots, holograms of lost relatives, and predictive “afterlife avatars” represent the latest tools in this quest for continuity.
Over the course of six weeks, we will analyze case studies of existing digital resurrection technologies, from griefbots trained on personal texts to start-ups offering algorithmic immortality. Weekly sessions will explore themes and questions including:
The psychology of digital mourning: Does a chatbot console or reopen wounds?
Ethics of consent: Who decides if your likeness becomes a ghost in the machine?
Spiritual resonance: Are these simulations sacred extensions of memory, or soulless parodies?
Cultural shifts: How do digital afterlives transform grief rituals?
A signature feature of this course will be a hands-on component: each participant will be invited to create their own “deadbot” using freely available AI tools. These experiments are not about technical mastery but lived reflection. What, we will ask ourselves, is evoked when the “voice” of someone gone reappears? Where do we draw the line between remembrance and uncanny intrusion?
Through a combination of richly illustrated lectures, discussion, and guided exercises, participants will come to understand the ways in which AI might be seen as a new priesthood of death and memory, and will leave with practical, emotional, and philosophical tools for navigating the era of the digital afterlife..
Jason D. Batt, Ph.D., explores AI consciousness and xenomythology—the emerging myths of interstellar humanity. Co-editor of Soul and the Machine (2025). Author of Onliest and Young Gods. Teaches through Morbid Anatomy.
Six Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Mondays, December 1, 2025- January 5, 2026
7:30 - 9:00pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Artificial intelligence is changing not only how we live, but also how we die—and how we are remembered. This six-week course examines the emergence of “digital ghosts:” AI-generated replicas of the dead that promise to keep memory alive while raising profound psychological and ethical questions.
We will begin by situating these technologies within humanity’s long struggle against mortality. From the pyramids of Egypt to the reliquaries of medieval saints, humans have always sought to preserve presence beyond death. The 19th century introduced new media into this struggle: daguerreotypes of the deceased, spirit photographs, and séances conducted with the aid of mediums. Today, AI memorial chatbots, holograms of lost relatives, and predictive “afterlife avatars” represent the latest tools in this quest for continuity.
Over the course of six weeks, we will analyze case studies of existing digital resurrection technologies, from griefbots trained on personal texts to start-ups offering algorithmic immortality. Weekly sessions will explore themes and questions including:
The psychology of digital mourning: Does a chatbot console or reopen wounds?
Ethics of consent: Who decides if your likeness becomes a ghost in the machine?
Spiritual resonance: Are these simulations sacred extensions of memory, or soulless parodies?
Cultural shifts: How do digital afterlives transform grief rituals?
A signature feature of this course will be a hands-on component: each participant will be invited to create their own “deadbot” using freely available AI tools. These experiments are not about technical mastery but lived reflection. What, we will ask ourselves, is evoked when the “voice” of someone gone reappears? Where do we draw the line between remembrance and uncanny intrusion?
Through a combination of richly illustrated lectures, discussion, and guided exercises, participants will come to understand the ways in which AI might be seen as a new priesthood of death and memory, and will leave with practical, emotional, and philosophical tools for navigating the era of the digital afterlife..
Jason D. Batt, Ph.D., explores AI consciousness and xenomythology—the emerging myths of interstellar humanity. Co-editor of Soul and the Machine (2025). Author of Onliest and Young Gods. Teaches through Morbid Anatomy.
