Interpersonal communication powers the fabric of society. Since the beginning of time, we have continuously invented better ways to connect with more people more quickly and more deeply. What used to require face to face communication gave way to letters, emails, text messaging and direct messaging. Each medium exponentially increased the number of people we could reach while slashing to zero the time it takes to reach them. There are an endless number of positive effects this has had on us as a species among them being increased productivity, knowledge, and happiness.
We've reached the point where the next breakthrough in interpersonal communication cannot occur as long as humans are in the critical path. Time has become the bottleneck. We've all experienced this to varying degrees. The friend that takes a week to respond, world renowned expert that will never respond to your Instagram message, therapist you can't get ahold of in between weekly sessions, or co-worker that takes a day to reply. What if you could have an unlimited number of deep interpersonal connections with anyone you desired regardless of where they lived, what language they spoke, what their socioeconomic status was, or whether or not they had time to talk to you? This is what we are democratizing at Essence.
What is an Essence? An essence is the digital clone of a person's mind that is indistinguishable from their human counterpart. It is composed of the same building blocks that make up the human mind. These include input processing, memory creation and recollection, and all of the functions the prefrontal cortex is responsible for. Memories are sacred and should be treated with the utmost respect. An essence should never share the memories of their human counterpart (even to another essence) unless they have deterministic permission to do so on a per memory basis. This implies that humans play a critical role in the training and active use of their essence.
Essences can be interacted with in the same way you would their human counterpart whether that be by texting, calling, or video chatting with them. However, this advances only one side of the interpersonal conversation equation - you interacting with an essence or another human interacting with yours. We can advance both sides by giving essences the ability to interact with other essences. Imagine asking an essence a question and having it consult other essences and then continuing the conversation with your essence only engaging you when it needs to or when it has a final answer.
There are a few ongoing attempts to bring this revolutionary technology into the world. However, anyone that tells you that all you need to do is upload a few documents, connect your gmail, etc. and your clone is ready will never democratize this technology for our species. Rather, they'll end up only giving you Glean or ChatGPT with a face where you can talk to your favorite venture capitalist or creator. In addition, the future will not require a consumer app for every vertical. True essence creation is agnostic of an individual's area of expertise.
I'll end with a story set in a world where Essence is democratized. Imagine a Monday morning in a world where Essence is everywhere…
You're Emily. You just graduated from Stanford on Saturday and you're starting your first day as an investment banker. Panicking about what to wear, you text the essence of your favorite style creator. She chats directly with your essence to pull details about your closet, vibe, and the bank's dress code. Then she sends back three perfect outfits using clothes you already own.
Sunday night at the graduation party, you and John (your crush from Corporate Finance) were flirting. Your friend Kate, who's also into John, messages your essence to ask how the party was. Your essence wants to include the flirty details, but it doesn't have permission yet. You get a ping asking if the memory can be shared with Kate; you decline. Your essence summarizes the evening to Kate that skips the juicy part entirely.
Monday morning you wake up to a Whoop email telling you that your cholesterol is a little high. You start a group chat with the essences of your med-school friend and Bryan Johnson. In under five minutes the three of them analyze your sleep, stress, and diet data and suggest small tweaks (mostly stress-related) that should bring the numbers down fast.
You arrive at the office and get hit with the classic first-day firehose. Not wanting to annoy your onboarding buddy, you quietly pull up their essence instead. It walks you through the org chart, explains the deal jargon flying around, and even role-plays how to jump into the next team call.
Around lunch you get a notification. You've been allowing the dating apps to use a locked-down version of your essence to help you find a boyfriend. There's a guy talking to your essence on Hinge and the conversation needs access to a specific memory. You allow it and get a notification with a date confirmation for tomorrow a few minutes later.
This is the world we're building.
Essence is the official app for creating, discovering, and talking to verified digital clones. It's also a responsibility to safely evolve the way we communicate as a species. If you would like to change the world with us, send us an email at contact@getessence.ai.