Hamlet, that lucky stiff, only had to worry about being or not being what a nice, binary Denmark he lived in. We modern mopes, on the other hand, must consider not only our too, too solid flesh but also our online infinitude.
From banking to book-buying, from Facebook pages to busty Warcraft avatars to scrupulously Tumblrd bucket lists, we leave our silicon snakeskins scattered from here to tim.buk.tu. In a sense, its the realization of William Gibsons Neuromancer fantasy: Weve been uploaded! To the cloud! Our local, carbon-based hard drives may fail, but vestiges of our inimitable selves will remain ambient and accessible long after we log off this mortal coil.
This distributed deathlessness means well all need a little cleanup on Aisle Me. The aspects of life we archive online, be they valuable, heritable, or simply embarrassing, require posthumous management (and, in some cases, eradication) lest our friends and loved ones and executors be embarrassed or inconvenienced by our lingering digital detritus, a trash-strewn wake of left-behind liabilities.
At least three companies AssetLock.net, Legacy Locker, and the charmingly named Deathswitch.com have arisen to keep customers passwords, usernames, final messages, and so on in a virtual safe-deposit box. After youre gone, these companies carry out last wishes, alert friends, give account access to various designated beneficiaries, and generally parse out and pass on your online assets.
Digital remains that are not bequeathed to an inheritor are incinerated, closing the book on PayPal accounts, profiles, even alternate identities (especially alternate identities: You dont want your mother knowing about, or worse, playing, the wife-swapping giant badger you became in Second Life).
Heres how it works...
From banking to book-buying, from Facebook pages to busty Warcraft avatars to scrupulously Tumblrd bucket lists, we leave our silicon snakeskins scattered from here to tim.buk.tu. In a sense, its the realization of William Gibsons Neuromancer fantasy: Weve been uploaded! To the cloud! Our local, carbon-based hard drives may fail, but vestiges of our inimitable selves will remain ambient and accessible long after we log off this mortal coil.
This distributed deathlessness means well all need a little cleanup on Aisle Me. The aspects of life we archive online, be they valuable, heritable, or simply embarrassing, require posthumous management (and, in some cases, eradication) lest our friends and loved ones and executors be embarrassed or inconvenienced by our lingering digital detritus, a trash-strewn wake of left-behind liabilities.
At least three companies AssetLock.net, Legacy Locker, and the charmingly named Deathswitch.com have arisen to keep customers passwords, usernames, final messages, and so on in a virtual safe-deposit box. After youre gone, these companies carry out last wishes, alert friends, give account access to various designated beneficiaries, and generally parse out and pass on your online assets.
Digital remains that are not bequeathed to an inheritor are incinerated, closing the book on PayPal accounts, profiles, even alternate identities (especially alternate identities: You dont want your mother knowing about, or worse, playing, the wife-swapping giant badger you became in Second Life).
Heres how it works...
For more information contact All About Jazz.
