With AI technology advancing rapidly, could we relive what life was like in past eras in first person?

[PTR 444]

With AI now capable of creating in-depth works of art, I’ve been wondering whether such technology could evolve to enable people to relive in first person what it was like to live in a previous era, with everything made to be as authentic as possible from a particular year.

Let’s say for example, the railway offers a VR headset or more subtle googles which you can set to any year between 1840 and the present day. Whilst wearing them, you will still be able to see your surroundings but the AI technology has replaced modern elements with those true to the year you have set it to.

For example, a wander around Waterloo Station concourse wearing the headset set to 1990 might use AI technology to replace the current digital screens with solari boards, Class 444s with CIGs and VEPs, and current disruption posters remade true to the style of that era.

Bearing in mind how much enthusiasts love their railway history, would there be a big market for this sort of technology? Basically a virtual living museum.

 

[Class15]

This sounds really cool. The only issue with it is walking into walls and so on which weren’t there in the past!

Edit: I’ve read your post again and seen the bit about ‘modern surroundings’. Apologies.

I would probably prefer this as some sort of VR video game instead, at a higher quality to what we see today.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Call me a cynic, but I find the rush to embrace computer generated artwork (it isn't "Artificial Intelligence" really, despite the hype) rather distateful. I agree that the quality of images being generated is improving rapidly, but once I spot (or find out) that an image is generated in this way, it loses a large part of its value for me. By using "shortcuts" to create art, are we not diminishing the importance of the art by removing the humanity from it?

The idea described by the OP does sound like a fun experience (though so far every experience I've had with VR has just made me feel queasy!) but I'd expect the railway to be well down the pecking order to benefit from this technology.

 

[JohnMcL7]

I'm not convinced genAI/LLM will be able to do this since you mention you want everything to be as accurate as possible since errors are an inherent part of the process. They may be able to produce something convincing that doesn't fall apart at the detail level like current systems do but it would likely be generic based on data it has from the time period.

I have thought when standing at ruins of a castle some sort of augmented reality headset that could show what the building looked like in its time would be fascinating. However VR and AR have both been struggling to get mainstream adoption and even with Apple and Sony both trying with their own products, the systems still remain relatively niche and Microsoft have abandoned their promising looking Mixed Reality systems which looked to aimed more at this sort of purpose. So I don't think it's likely anything like this would happen soon, definitely viable in VR but then gets back to the lack of mainstream interest and therefore poor return on investment for companies offering such experiences.

 

[PTR 444]

This sounds really cool. The only issue with it is walking into walls and so on which weren’t there in the past!

Edit: I’ve read your post again and seen the bit about ‘modern surroundings’. Apologies.

I would probably prefer this as some sort of VR video game instead, at a higher quality to what we see today.

There are of course already several video games out there that portray realistic-looking depictions of periods of history, even if they are not necessarily factually accurate.

The idea of using AI to regenerate historical environments is so that history can still be preserved even if the physical artefacts have been destroyed. A living museum (such as Beamish or Black Country) can achieve the same purpose in a much more authentic manner, but would likely be more costly to run with physical buildings and staff etc. Perhaps the ideal solution would be a combination of both.