The future is a mystery, but what if it wasn't? What if you could just chat with a future version of yourself and learn about what fate has planned for you?
That may sound like science fiction, but a new website seeks to do just that: it lets you talk with a future version of, well, you.
Future Self is part of an advertising campaign by Orange, a European telecom company. After you upload a photo and speak into your computer's mic, it spits out a version of you that's 20 years older, and, hopefully, 20 years wiser.
"We wanted to do something fun, and digital, and not focused on the past," says Anne Imbert, a member of Orange's global brand team. "Our creative agency came back to us with this idea to project yourself into the future and predict what the future would be in 20 years."
After that, you can ask your future self anything. Am I living on Mars? Do I have a flying car? Did I ever get around to doing that project I kept putting off? No question is off limits and the answers are sometimes surprisingly funny.
Orange: Futureself Casestudy from Jam3 on Vimeo.
It's especially interesting when you realize that the future version of yourself speaks with a British accent, even if you're not British. Of course, there's a reason for that and future you will probably tell you that you speak a variety of languages, including dolphin.
Future Self has some pretty complicated technology under its hood, including motion capture software, speech recognition and 3-D rendering. The result is a of sort realistic, but creepy, simulation of yourself in the year 2034.
All you need on your end, though, is a camera and microphone on your computer. Future Self handles all the heavy tech on its end.
It's definitely cool and a good indication of how far technology has progressed in the last 20 years, as well as a small indication of what things will look like 20 years from now.
"No pun intended, but it really is a project that's a bit ahead of its time," says Adrian Belina, the creative director of Jam3, who built the website. "Basically you're rendering things live, as opposed to a computer game."
Future Self is definitely worth trying out, at least for fun.
[Photo Credit: Orange/Vimeo]
