On the Possibilities of “Alter Ego”
If you haven’t been paying attention, Fox has a new hit show on its hands with “Alter Ego”. It’s a singing competition with a digital twist. Contestants only have to have a great singing voice. They don’t perform in person. Instead, they put on a special electronic sensor suit and a computer generates a digital “alter ego” of them out on stage. It’s the coolest thing. It doesn’t matter what you really look like, your alter ego projects who you want to be. While this technology is being used in an entertainment setting, the possibilities are fascinating…and scary.

Hard to tell if the show will remain a hit, but think about the technology. On the show, contestants talk about how being able to project a different body image, has unlocked their talent, assuaged their fears, helped them overcome personal disabilities and generally removed a hurdle in efforts to promote their vocal talents. Since the “alter egos” are electronically generated, they can stretch the possibilities of what the human body can look like. You can be anything from human insect to bombshell. Your actual moves are transmitted, by the sensor-suit, into movements beyond what our bodies can actually do. We can become our own avatars.

Now let’s have some fun. What if you had a nosey neighbor and wanted to do a number on them? You could get your “alter ego” to “perform” at your window, drive the voyeur nuts. Maybe even get them to file a false police report and get charged. How about salespeople. Use that persuasive talent, but “package” your pitch in an entirely more interesting and appealing appearance. Remote workers can do job interviews as whoever they want to project. Algorithms can “shape” your job seeking self to best suit the employer’s needs. Or maybe you’re a politician who has great ideas but an irritating persona. Wala, you can put those ideas out from a Hollywood “alter ego”, and increase your following immensely. Take it to the extreme. You can be both you and your opponent in the same election. Sort of a Jekyll and Hyde campaign where you can’t lose.

All this depends on how willing we are to accept the avatars instead of seeing the human behind it. We struggle today to find the human behind many people we do see in person. With our world increasingly becoming a digital experience, we are slipping into a place where we’ll never meet our online “influencers” and personalities in real life. How far are we from admiring and being persuaded by electronically “enhanced” leaders? Will we need laws that require the people behind the avatars to reveal themselves? Will all people come with a warning label that says “this person may be electronically enhanced”?

Right now, these are just projections and musings. But the technology is real and as the show demonstrates, a powerful game changer in human perception. Hard to believe it won’t be exploited for both good and nefarious purposes. This is all part of how technology is making our world more complex and unhitching us from our human restraints. It’s cool, creative, can be unburdening and could have a dark side. Who do you want to be? Your new self awaits!

ihg 9-30-2021

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