Technology for the Afterlife

Apparently, according to Engadget, digital tombstones aren't selling so well. These are tombstones embedded with video screens that constantly show images, videos, etc., of the deceased to all who come by. Actually never struck me as a brilliant concept.

However, here's another idea: At EG 2007 last week, Paola Antonelli of the Museum of Modern Art showed off some concepts that grew out of cross-fertilizing artists with technologists. One was called Digital Remains. This would be an encrypted Bluetooth device that would act as a digital key to information about the deceased that's stored on the Net -- like, say, old e-mails. From the project's Web site:

Personal access keys are used to log on to the digital remains of a person and receive their data on our own digital devices. These keys, when placed next to a mobile phone, MP3 player or computer, establish a bluetooth connection with the device and trigger a remote log-on to the digital remains of the deceased person they are linked to, allowing a person to access the dead person's data. Based on data tags and meta data, search algorithms dig through a deceased person's data, presenting the content that is most likely relevant to us. For instance, a photograph from a holiday we spent with the person 10 years ago, or the person's favourite piece of music which they typically listened to while writing e-mails. The system may bring up emails the deceased read and re-read or it might suggest their own particular way of moving around the keyboard, of naming files and structuring folders. Someone who's not a close relative, for example, would get only a partial access to the deceased's data and anything you don't want others to know of would become crypted after your death.

. □