Blog Post

September 1, 2022

The Digital After Life

Death is a reality that we must all face. It can be a challenging process for the loved ones we leave behind. However, technology could make it more bearable and even sustainable. I'm referring to the digital afterlife.

Nothing frightens me more than the thought of mortality. Getting to terms with the fact that we are all here only for a limited time. Worse yet, even tomorrow isn't a guarantee. But what if we could still communicate with those we have lost? Today, we must deal with more than simply our physical remains. Nearly everyone has a digital footprint.

According to one study, we each generate 1.7 megabytes of data per second. Our web searches, emails, and text threads are also included, in addition to our social media accounts. Even after we pass away, websites continue to store enormous amounts of data. All this data sticks around by default.

Facebook used to have a delete-upon-death policy. That changed following the Virginia Tech massacre. The grieving visited Facebook and pleaded with the company not to remove these profiles. The way that we grieve is evolving, and one way is that we're still able to interact with the social media profiles of the deceased. Within the next century, there could be as many social media profiles for the dead as for the living. I suppose handling digital remains will become a more profound priority for tech companies. Our digital records don't just have to sit there. What if they could be used in entirely different ways?

It may soon be conceivable to recreate deceased loved ones using digital remains. We might be able to leave audio versions of ourselves for the grieving, thanks to voice-cloning technologies. A visual element could also be present, similar to deepfake videos, just like when Kanye West gifted Kim Kardashian a hologram of her late father in 2020. It is already possible to utilise holographic visuals of people to have them say things they have never said.

Digital avatars that could change the way we mourn can be made by fusing the artificial intelligence we see in voice cloning and deepfakes with all the data we leave behind. These avatars will access actual examples of our texts, emails or interactions on social media. It's rather incredible, in my opinion, to think that long after I'm gone, people would be able to engage with me and know what I was like and what I was thinking.

However, Tech companies might prioritise their bottom lines over people's grief. As long as people don't fully own their data, digital remains can be utilised in a manner one might never have intended. Of course, how we process our loss should continue to be a personal choice. Grief is painful, as we are all aware. Even while death is still inevitable, one can only hope that technology will aid in our quest for connection and solace.