Should we communicate with the dead to assuage our grief? An Ubuntu perspective on using griefbots

Abstract During the 20th century, dealing with grief through an ongoing involvement with the deceased (such as speaking to their grave) was seen as pathological by Western authors such as Sigmund Freud. Nowadays, we are presented with the opportunity to continue interacting with digital representations of the deceased. As a result, the paper adopts an Ubuntu perspective, i.e., a sub-Saharan African philosophy focussed on community and relationship to provide a toolkit for using this emerging technology. I will argue that the Ubuntu framework I propose contributes to the use of griefbots in two ways. The first is that it shows that it is morally permissible to use griefbots to assuage our grief. The second is that it delineates how we can ethically use the technology. To do so, I split my analysis into four sections. In the first section, I show that meaningful relationships can occur between the bereaved and griefbots. This will be done by exploring the Western theory of continuing bonds proposed by Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman and Steven Nickman. In my second, I flesh out my Ubuntu framework according to Thaddeus Metz’s accounts on Ubuntu as a modal-relational theory. In my third section, I apply my Ubuntu framework to the case of Roman Mazurenko. Furthermore, I consider some counterarguments to the Ubuntu framework regarding privacy, commercialisation and people replacement. Finally, I conclude that, despite these limitations, the Ubuntu framework positively contributes to determining whether we should communicate with the dead through griefbots to assuage our grief.