On Becoming a Virtual Ghost
January 15I'm starting a new side project, and I honestly can't decide if it's funny, morbid, thought-provoking or just plain weird. It's a performance art project that will take me decades to complete, and I'll never get to see the results. It's going to affect every single person who follows me online in unpredictable and surprising ways, and hopefully spark some lively debate.
With the help of web guru Patrick Delahanty, today we began setting up Afterlyfe.me. I'm currently in the process of giving the website all of my credentials and passwords for my social media websites (currently twitter and facebook, though we'll see what new startups make the cut in the future). And starting on my upcoming birthday (January 17th), we're going to activate a dead-man's switch on the site.
From that point on, every birthday for the rest of my life, I'll need to check in to let Afterlyfe know that I'm still alive and kicking (if I'm smart, I'll also make sure the site hits me up with email reminders every year as well). Once I stop checking in, Afterlyfe will assume I've kicked the bucket, and go into action, taking control of my facebook and twitter pages.
From that point on, Afterlyfe will use all my previous tweets and facebook updates to recreate a digital simulacrum of my life. The goal is to make me the world's first virtual ghost.
For starters, we're going to keep it simple: the default settings will be that the moment I die, Afterlyfe will make an exact copy of my last year in tweets, and release them at the exact times they were originally posted, year after year. Every year, followers will see me complain about taxes come mid April. You'll get my same Christmas tweets. Happy birthday wishes I made in the past will continue to arrive, year after year, right on schedule.
Even if that's all the site does, that's good enough for me... After all, what are ghosts supposed to be but people who don't know that they're dead? Wandering down the same halls, doing the same things they did when they were alive. Afterlyfe would create the digital echoes of my thousands of tweets and status updates for decades to come.
If we're able to get fancy, I'd like to go back and favorite some of my best tweets. Little nuggets that I'm particularly fond of could automatically be sprinkled in among the tedium in the echoes. That way I can bring a smile or thought even from beyond the grave. That'd be cool.
So... why do this? Isn't it tacky and morbid? Probably. But there's so many services that already exist that nuke all your online data after your demise. That makes sense, I suppose, but it just seems like such a waste. I mean, we pour so much of our personality into our updates, and so much of them get forgotten over time... We all make jokes about haunting our friends if we meet an untimely demise, but now you can actually do it.
Is this insane? Silly? Creepy? I'd love to get your thoughts, as I honestly don't know myself... that's sorta the whole point of this experiment.
-Brian
PS - if you're nutty enough to want to join me on this bizarre adventure, you can sign up at afterlyfe.me and we'll notify you when the service is fully functional.
Reader Comments (38)
There are tons of things that can be done to prevent it from causing harm, such as an opt-in for the person, or an opt-out for family members who can't take the stress (power of attorney or some such), but this idea definitely has legs. Not to mention having a one month or so grace period between check ins. A reminder e-mail script would be insanely easy I'm sure.
Would it be more prudent to preface each tweet or status update with an acronym or hashtag or something that would denote it being an afterlyfe tweet? Maybe not a hashtag, but an original posting year or something of that nature.
Either way this symbolically or realistically looks towards the future as that post singularity era when we can copy ourselves over. If the iPad is the forefather of Minority Report style screen technology, then why not Afterlyfe be the start of direct computer personality copies? The internet has the processing power and storage already to hold someone's personality, if we just knew how to do it. Why not this be the backbone of sorts?
That's a fantastic idea, weird trough.. but i'd love to have my own virtual ghost when my corpse will haunt his coffin.
Anyway, good luck :D and keep up the scam school project it's AWESOME DUDE... :p
Greatz..
What about leapyears?
One question, who pays for the hosting to keep the service running after your dead?
This is indeed a cool idea.. one which I've thought about often.
For me though, it's got to be a self-aware ghost - one that's able to really think, but uses all of my memories - perhaps gaining some kind of emotional state from the 1000's of photos I've uploaded etc. Maybe knowing who my friends are through facebook and recognising them through it's tagging etc..
Definitely cool stuff, and I reckon in 10/20 years it'll become more of a mainstream thing to set up a digital ghost version of yourself... maybe you'll be able to run it in demo mode before your death so you can tweak it's likeness etc.
Btw Brian, love all your shows - keep up the good work.
Hello Brian,
You must read Daemon! (but you have already been told that).
I am so happy that someone is following up on this. I would like to see that there would be some deal with gmail or hotmail or any of the free email organizations that based on Afterlyfe information one could keep their email address with that provider after their death . It would be nice to allow Afterlyfe to use the pop/smtp functions to send an email from my email address that would actually be from beyond. Currently (to my knowledge) no major provider has the ability to send future emails at this time.
Since email is the first true common internet communications resource it seems that it would be the last to go. Because of this it would be nice to have Afterlyfe use the products or hardware that require an email or an SMS or can receive an email or SMS to do something. Think Daemon. I don't want to be evil but I want to have fun and I want to be me... in the MATRIX.
I can imagine Afterlyfe compatible social sites and hardware. (Kevin Rose, make this a Digg thing! :))
Imagine sending a SMS or an email every year to someone on the anniversary of the moment of your death (I pity the guy that gets the friend's, family member's or enemy's phone number or email address). Imagine moving a web camera to a certain location or making call a phone with a message.
What would be really cool is if Afterlyfe could surf the net based on material I approve of in advance as well during the research process and I would allow Afterlyfe to find my historical posts on forum sites or comment areas of news sites and the like. While alive I would allow it to develop an AI version of me. I could tweak it to make it more like me with the attitude or typical responses that would relate to or make it me. Maybe even allow me to create a "Max Headroom" emulation of my image and voice that will virtually visually defines who I am (was) now so it could be me in the Afterlyfe.
A few years ago I lost a friend named Bruce. He was expected to live a much longer life yet he died young of natural. He was one of the original Apple fanboys. He had a very interesting personality and an excellent vanity @mac.com email address that others would kill for. (it was actually stolen and he had to become #2 as apple would not give it back. After his death his brother was responsible to notify his friends and one of the ways he made sure he got everyone was by sending an email from his account. It was so odd reading what I knew was going to be the last email from this account. As time went by I felt like responding to him as though he could actually read the email. Bruce was a real techie and deserves to be in the Afterlyfe. Too bad he is already gone but his bits and bytes are still out there waiting for cultivation in order to perhaps one day let Bruce live on...
Something else I would like you to consider is a means of being notified of ones death. There is a person that I am sure is still alive because evil people live longer for some reason and I want to be notified of his death. I know where he lives and I am sure that there will be an obituary for him upon his death that will be posted in the local newspaper or newspaper website. I would like a way to be notified of every person that dies with a specific name in a certain area. It would be cool if I could find out when Vernon Jones dies so I can go an piss on his grave. Please add that as a feature :)
Thanks,
STiMULi
I love this idea, just a couple thoughts I have had?
1. Instead of worrying about having to change your site to deal with what ever future social media is created, how about creating a new social media site that has this function built into it. Or just copywrite the idea and sell it to twitter, facebook, etc.
2. Will it be able to accept friend invites? And maybe even look at your friends list and wish Happy Birthday to people added after you died.
Now the biggest reason I have for suggestion 2, is just imagine having your grand children hundreds of years from now friending you and getting to learn about you from you. And maybe more important, if I died in the next year, it could allow my children 3 and 4 right now, to friend me when they are older and get to know me again, and in different ways that they don't understand now.
Intriguing... I like it. However, a few things that may want to be addressed:
This would work great if, say, you died in the next year or two. It would most likely work. However, if you live another 40 years, the likelihood that twitter and facebook will be around isn't too promising. Remember myspace? Better yet, xanga? Maybe facebook and twitter will last, but it's unlikely. They are only around because nothing has challenged them.
For this to have any longevity, you'll have to have a way to keep up with social media as it evolves. That means that somehow, you'll need to be able to adapt to whatever new thing takes off. Whether it's something like google+ or something completely different, you'll need to be able to move from platform to platform. Otherwise, your social media ghost will "die" with it's medium.
Such a great idea! Love it!
It's a good way to keep us alive!!
Ghost in the machine!!!! Very cool experience!!!
Good luck with the new project Brian!
Can't wait to hear more about such a great idea!
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