Flash Forward
Do you want to see your future self?
The most iconic sound of a historical photograph is the sound of the loud flash, now simulated by having the option of the flash on our iPhones but still being able to hear the same sound when a photo is clicked.
With film photography there was a moment of uncertainty when looking through the small window and pressing the shutter, to finishing your film roll and then having to develop the negatives to finally be able to receive your photo to the capture of a specific moment.
There used to be a delay before being able to see the photograph, but this has since changed in the age of digital photography.
The ability to see your future self is not something new, but rather an idea that has been represented in fiction and is represented now with the capability of artificial intelligence. Historically, photography has been used to capture a moment in time, a specific instance that cannot be revised again. However, now with the use of numerous intelligent filters on our smartphones we are able to capture and save an image of our future self, whether it is true or not.
The notion of viewing a future version of yourself has been illustrated in the fiction short story by Anthony Horowitz and through the popular digital FaceApp.
The Man with the Yellow Face, Anthony Horowitz
This short story was published in 1999 and is about a thirteen year old boy who uses a photo booth at York train station while waiting for his train. The boy sits in the booth and clicks his standard four pictures. The photo booth is described as an “ugly metal box” and red light inside as the “devil eye winking at me”. However, when he receives his film strip, there is something awry with the third image. The third image is shocking and revolting, it is of a man with a disfigured face, damaged skin and sunken blue eyes. The teenager thinks the machine must be broken and wonders if it mixed a photo of a person before, which still doesn’t make sense as it should have been in the first picture in the strip as opposed to the third in the middle. The boy, who has the same blue eyes, isn’t sure what to make of it and heads onto the train. Unfortunately, the train gets into an accident and the boy suffers severe injuries. Several years later when the same boy looks into the mirror, the shocking face from the photo strip is actually him.
FaceApp
This is a commercial app that went viral in 2019, with numerous celebrities posting images of their aged self on social media. The trend was successful with millions of people around the world using the age filter to see and post images of their future self. Many were surprisingly comfortable with seeing their aged self and sharing it on social media. The application seems to have shown aging in a graceful manner without a high level of disturbance.
What about the role of predictive AI in photography?
There are numerous questions that arise with the growing capability of AI to immediately predict and project a future version of an individual. There is functionality in crime solving and being able to trace down suspects. It becomes hard to draw the line between it’s value and it’s detrimental affects. Could it be like opening Pandora’s box? However, in the commercial world is there a benefit in AI being able to predict the visuals of our future aged self? In some cases it is too real and shocking as in the Horowitz’s depiction as supposed to lighter humorous filters on snapchat.
In addition, individuals should also consider issues relating to privacy and giving access to their personal pictures to the applications.
It seems positive predictions help us look forward to achieving this version of our future self. On the other hand, do negative predictions scare us and prevent us from being able to live life fully and wish we hadn’t seen this?
We question the functional adaption of predictive AI in widely accessible digital photography applications and filters.
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To what extent should we use AI in predicting how our future self will look?
