Charley Burlock

When Justin Harrison got the call in 2022 telling him that his mother would likely die within the day, he didn’t panic. He got on a plane to Singapore, where he was scheduled to present at a conference about his start-up, You, Only Virtual, a platform on which users can chat with AI versions of their dead loved ones, and which Justin believes can ultimately eliminate grief as a human experience. He learned about his mother’s death while flying over the Pacific.

Last September, I got a message from my brother’s memorial Facebook group. The group chat had been created by my aunt shortly after Ben died, nearly a decade ago, so that the people closest to him could share photos and memories. The group is not as active as it once was, but people still post.