Eternal You

What’s on offer?

The event will start at Newcastle City Library with a workshop called Tickets for the Afterlife. You will get the chance to explore a set of physical tickets that expand on past, present and future technologies linked to death and immortality (4pm – 6pm). Snacks and drinks will be provided (pay as you feel). 

 

Following this we will walk over to the Tyneside Cinema for an evening viewing of the newly released documentary Eternal You (world premiere 2024 Sundance Film Festival) starting at 7pm.   

 

This will be followed by a panel from experts in death and technology including Dr Georgina Robinson (Centre for Death and Life Studies – Durham University) and Chris Stokel-Walker (journalist and author of How AI Ate the World). 

 

You are welcome to attend either the library or cinema part of this event independently. 

What’s it about?

The future of death already surrounds us. Technology is developing at such a pace that many things thought to be fictional like: enclosing your entire digital life into a physical object and human composting that transforms graveyards into green cites, are here and ready to challenge our perceptions of death and legacy. Historic death practices may also seem strange when we first look back on them. From taking pictures with the dead, to putting hair into lockets that are kept close to the body. These rituals in one way or another all aimed to keep memories and physical links to the dead –in ways that may charm or unsettle us.  

 

Taking our current AI obsessed world, ETERNAL YOU examines the story of people who live on as digital replicants in the pockets of their loved ones. Following tech start-ups which use a wealth of data to develop “digital doppelgangers,” which promise to immortalize people on earth. The film raises a number of questions, which our panellists will explore with you, such as: Can a digital entity compensate for the loss of a loved one? How will human memory be affected? And do we not have the right to forget? 

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Stacey Pitsillides, Associate Professor  

Andy Jones, Humanist Funeral Director  

Kim Dryden,  Newcastle City Library 

Open to

Anyone 15+ is welcome to attend

Of particular interest to

How we die and how we prepare for it will differ, but by providing space and opportunity for people of all walks of life to think about their future options is very empowering and life-enhancing to individuals. The event will specifically appeal to those who have experienced loss or those with an interest in death and dying e.g. death practitioners/ clinical/ palliative care alongside people interested in technologies specifically AI and Science Fictions.

Event Booking details

TBC  

Newcastle City Library will create an Eventbrite for free workshop 

Tickets will be sold on Tyneside Cinema website  

Scheduling information

4 – 6 Newcastle City Library, Bewick Hall 

7 – 9 Tyneside Cinema

Event booking deadline

no deadline