Digital Immortality: Conceptual Foundations and Technological Approaches

Digital immortality is commonly defined as the extension of a person’s digital presence beyond
physical death. Savin-Baden and colleagues define it as “the continuation of an active or passive
digital presence after death” (Savin-Baden et al., 2017). Academic research frames this
concept through two modes: a passive (one-way) digital legacy (e.g. memorialized profiles) and
an active (two-way) digital persona that can interact posthumously. This paper reviews
peer-reviewed and scholarly sources on how digital immortality is pursued. Key approaches
include preserving and curating one’s personal data, modeling personality via artificial
intelligence, creating interactive avatars or chatbots, and advanced ideas like mind uploading and
digital twins. Grounded in recent expert literature, we outline both the conceptual definitions and
the technical mechanisms that researchers have developed or proposed to achieve digital
immortality, without engaging in unfounded speculation.