There’s something deeply human about the desire to remember the people we love who are no longer with us. Preserving memories and passing along heritage is an innate human desire that has existed throughout our existence. Even after they’re gone, we keep their photos displayed. We visit their graves. We speak to them as if they were there. But the conversation has always been one-way.

Loss is one of the most difficult human experiences to go through and coping with it is uniquely personal to each of us. Remembering loved ones has only become more complex in a digital age of preservation; fragments of us forever trapped in Message chats, Tweets and Instagram or Facebook posts.

Technology that captures and preserves our essence isn’t limited to grief and loss. It could also be used in the present, to document personal thoughts or to communicate difficult conversations. Wherever this path takes us, dead or alive, it’s perhaps most importantly a reminder to make the most of our fragile lives and the fleeting presence our loved ones – before we turn to dust or pixels.