Technonecromancy: Simulacra of Presence and the Politics of Death in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence
trilogía Ciencia Tecnología Sociedad June 19, 2026 Gustavo Simas da Silva, Vânia Ribas Ulbricht
Technonecromancy is a new form of mediation that uses generative models, voice cloning, and synthetic video to create dialogic simulations of the dead, shifting the relationship to the deceased from archival recollection to interactive presence. Drawing on science and technology studies, phenomenology, and 4E cognition, the article argues that these posthumous agents can phenomenologically reorganize mourning but are ontologically insufficient as continuations of persons. Examining cultural and commercial cases like griefbots and animated photo apps, it shows how engineered responsiveness can both support continuing bonds and foster dependence, reconfiguring rituals of loss.