In the 2009 film “Surrogates”, people hide in their homes, only engaging with the world through aesthetically perfect android bodies. Bruce Willis’s character is forced to interact with the world in his human form, and his wife, through a surrogate, is disgusted by his imperfect body.

I think about this when I see the avatars generated by chatGPT and other systems; impossibly flawless, idealized representations disconnected from the perfectly imperfect nature of real human bodies. Every cheek chiseled, every jawline square, every female body the same golden ratio of proportions.

Humans are beautiful in their diversity, not in their sameness, and I worry that we may increasingly normalize seeing our real bodies and faces as flawed in relation to idealized avatars that check every box for aesthetics, but lack the dice roll of genetic expression which causes specific variations that make us unique, not imperfect. That slightly gap toothed grin, the full hips that sit a little higher than average, the scars and skin textures and hair and folds and curves that all make up the sensual and aesthetic experience of real bodies.

To be clear, I’m not criticizing or judging the use of avatars of that sort. I’m just wondering what the impact will be on our perspective of beauty 5 or 10 years from now, and whether we are setting a trap for ourselves that will leave us forever dissatisfied with what we see in the mirror.