John Vlahos, like many people of a certain age, would probably tell you that his life was nothing special. To those who loved him, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
The son of Greek immigrants, Vlahos was raised in Northern California where he worked his way through college at the University of California, wrestling ice blocks onto boxcars. He was sports editor of the school newspaper, fueling a lifelong love of sports that later found him announcing football games from the Cal press box. He eventually became a respected Bay Area lawyer while nurturing another of his passions, opera. Along the way he married and raised a family.
But the Vlahos family was rattled by the grim April 2016 diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to other vital organs in John Vlahos' 80-year-old body. Almost immediately his son, James, came up with an unusual plan to preserve his dad's legacy. James, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Popular Science and Wired, started with the time-tested tradition of saving his dad's stories.
Digital recorder in hand, James Vlahos started recording his dad's memories just weeks after the diagnosis. It was the first of more than a dozen sessions, most lasting more than an hour, that would result in a transcript of 91,970 words that filled 203 printed pages of 12 point type. But instead of just putting the transcript into a binder, James had another idea -- he'd create a "Dadbot," something of an electronic representation of his father similar to personal assistants Siri or Alexa.
The technical name for such a creation is chatbot, a digital companion capable of carrying on a conversation. The younger Vlahos knew his computer skills would only allow for a rudimentary chatbot, but he wasn't striving for a Siri-like relationship, he just wanted to preserve his dad's legacy in a uniquely dynamic way. Before formally launching his project, Vlahos persuaded his ailing father to go along with the scheme as long as he was able. As John's condition deteriorated, James' project blossomed. By the time John died earlier this year, James had a passable version of his Dadbot. He shared his experience with a touching article in a recent issue of Wired. The article also included a video.
Video selfies. Want to make a video of your own life story but don't have the necessary skills, equipment or money? No problem say the folks at Lifey. If you found this blog on the internet, you can probably make "a video selfie of one's life," as the Lifey web site describes their process, which they say is free. Check it out and report back about what your Lifey experience was like.
Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand -- Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- is available at Amazon.
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