XPANSE is a global initiative bringing together the world’s brightest minds and renowned technologists to set the path for exponential technology fields—spanning quantum, AI + AGI, genomics, exotic computing, embodied intelligence, among others.

Professor Hiroshi Ishii presented his group's vision of 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, which extends the concept of telepresence into the past and the afterlife to address the vast emotional and temporal distance caused by the memory of loved ones who have drifted apart and faded away. Instead of explicit and literal representations of loved ones, 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 describes poetic encounters with digital and physical traces left by the absence of others. 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 promotes illusory communication to evoke the feeling of being with those who are no longer with us, without using synthetic or generative representations and utterances, or generative representations and utterances. This vision is deeply inspired by the Portuguese concept of "Saudade"—the "longing for the beloved thing, person, place and moment, made painful by its absence."

Professor Ishii presented this vision through five design principles: the presence of absence, illusory communication, the materiality of memory, traces of reflection, and distant time, grounded in historical and cultural contexts. He presented TwitterPoet and reMirrorFugue as examples of their design for 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.