#holopac

I'll happily admit when I first heard about this, I laughed my ass off and thought it was the silliest waste of money I had heard of. A couple hundred thousand dollars was spent in its development. All in all it seemed like a ton of money to throw down to exploit the dead artist's legacy.

But was it really exploitation? To bring a man back, and have him back to doing what he loved doing while he was alive. And shit, if I die, and you make a hologram of me with a body like Tupac is sporting here, my ghost will happily spend the rest of your life tormenting your enemies.

The cost sounds significant, but ultimately, it will probably be a worthwhile investment, particularly if Dre and Snoop continue to utilize the hologram on tour as rumored.

And where can we go from here? I wouldn't be bothered to go to a Paul McCartney solo concert, but if there was a decent chance John and George might come strolling out to perform with him? And Ringo, who's not actually dead and probably comparably affordable? That's the easy example, but think of how many dead artists you adore that you could watch perform live like this, especially as it becomes increasingly cost effective (which it certainly will).

Of course, that all comes into copyright issues, I'm sure Yoko would have something to say about that Beatles scenario. But not enough to prevent what I imagine will become far far more widespread use of holograms moving forward.

And that's just talking about actual people. Japanese pop star Hatsune Miku is an international sensation, and that's without the benefit of, y'know, actually existing:

Japan, I love you, but your pop culture is crazy sometimes. That said, don't believe for a second that the likes of Disney doesn't already have an American answer to this in the works. And this is basically what they've been doing with boy bands for years. That's fine, probably won't have much an effect on somebody who might read this blog, but what about the likes of Gorillaz or Dethklok? Would you not be excited to see three dimensional life-sized realistic versions of them take the stage? I know I would.