Digital Nostalgia: A Phenomenology Interpretation of Distributed Emotions and AI Memory Carriers
彭慧敏1
作者信息
1. 桂林医科大学
折叠
Abstract
This paper examines how generative artificial intelligence (AI) agents trained on digital traces of deceased loved ones reshape remembrance as a distributed, co performed emotional process—a phenomenon we term digital nostalgia. While mainstream discourse focuses on technical fidelity or data privacy, it overlooks the dynamic, dialogical structure of AI mediated Nostalgia. Adopting a conceptual analytical approach that integrates distributed cognition theory and phenomenological accounts of nostalgia, we argue that AI memory agents play a dual role: as cognitive artifacts that store and trigger memories, and as affective quasi others whose responsive presence transforms solitary recollection into collaborative emotional performance. This transformation reconfigures the spatial dimension already implicit in classical accounts of nostalgia: the longed for “place of belonging” is no longer a remembered physical location or an imagined scene, but a relational space enacted in the present through dialogue. Building on this framework, we propose emotional smoothing as a testable conceptual hypothesis: a multi layered mechanism—spanning training data bias, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), and user experience flow—through which AI’s “appropriate,” empathetic responses may systematically trim trauma, ambiguity, and contradiction from memory narratives. Drawing on recent empirical studies of user interactions with generative ghosts, we suggest how smoothing might extend from emotional regulation to cognitive narrowing, and how nostalgia may become commodified. The paper contributes: (1) a phenomenological framework for conceptualizing AI mediated nostalgia as spatial and dialogical; (2) a critical analysis of emotional smoothing as a hypothesis shaped by commercial incentives; and (3) an application of the thanatosensitivity framework to interrogate how current AI memory agents may risk erasing the ambivalence and complexity of grief. We conclude with implications for thanatosensitive design and policy, arguing that preserving emotional friction—if supported by future empirical research—may be essential for authentic human AI interaction (HAI).
Key words
Digital nostalgia/ Distributed emotion/ AI memory agents/ Emotional smoothing/ Thanatosensitivity/ Phenomenology of AI/
引用本文复制引用
彭慧敏.Digital Nostalgia: A Phenomenology Interpretation of Distributed Emotions and AI Memory Carriers[EB/OL].(2026-09-10)[2026-09-11].https://sinoxiv.napstic.cn/article/26205311.
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