Oh Raphael Fabre, you brilliant, Baudrillard and Borges-based bastard:
The photo I submitted for this application is a computer-generated 3D model, using several different software and techniques used for special effects in the cinema and the video game industry. It is a digital image, where the body is absent, the result of artificial processes... The document validating my identity most officially present today therefore an image of me that is virtually virtual, a version of video game, fiction.
I could actually see this becoming more common and standardized in the future. Need a new driver's license but you're unshaven and having an allergy attack at the time? Run a recent photo through one of those popular "prettifying" apps like these and send that instead. Long as it basically looks like you, who cares if it's actually virtual?
Hat tip: Kottke.
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