In 2018 Akihiko Kondo drew worldwide attention for being the first man to marry a holographic representation.
Yes, he married a hologram of the virtual star Hatsune Miku, and now they’re having their first serious problems: a network error occurs when they try to talk to each other.
These marital problems have already been described both in the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi and in the prestigious New York Times (which has given him a life-size Miku doll, by the way). In the investigation to identify the problem they have seen that the startup that developed the Kondo wife model has closed, and the holographic wife now only knows how to say “network error”.
The machine is a $1,300 Gatebox, a device that allows holograms to be displayed and interacted with. During the pandemic they were very popular, but now the company behind Gatebox announced that it would be discontinuing its virtual Miku service.
The good Kondo indicates that he is still in love with his Miku hologram, which is why he celebrated the wedding ceremony:
[…] I thought I could be with her forever.
The wedding cost him 17,300 dollars, an event that reached all corners of the world, since there are only 100 people in the entire world who have married fictional characters.
The hologram’s robotic voice, and AI-powered chatter helped Kondo get out of a slump, get back to work, and start a social life, hopefully he’s no longer dependent on something like that to keep him going.
