Slashdot Mirror
Not Life After Death -- Email After Death
Rick Zeman writes "Wanna send that one last email after you're dead and gone? CNN has an article about a service that will give the 21st century equivalent to a old-fashioned note in a drawer except that this could be more targeted '...by offering people the chance to write one last e-mail, complete with video clip or photo attachments, and send it to loved ones, friends or even enemies after the person who wrote it is dead.'"
Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
I used to get the feeling that email, because it was even further removed from face-to-face contact that it was more impersonal than hand-written mail. Hand-written mail being closer because it requires a personal effort to physically write the words.
Would your loved ones want to read a "final email" rather than a goodbye letter that was written onto parchment? I don't know.
The video and audio are good ideas, but realistically, that kind of thing was done before with video cameras and cassette tapes. The digital fidelity of such a message would be much lower than the analog fidelity of VHS or cassette tape.
This seems like one of those silly projects that eventually disappears, like "DotComGuy" and other misbegotten web pioneers/ideas. Spend a couple bucks on a nice pen and some really fancy paper and write out your last words. Leave it with your lawyer to be handed out to your loved ones when the will is read. So much more personal than an email from beyond the grave.
Dancin Santa
Could you imagine what would happen if someone hacked into this (and you can be sure that they will)? Chances are, it's going to be chock-full of dark secrets and admissions of crimes. Just the kinds of things you don't want in anyone else's hands. This is a bad idea.
G
Not only can the company cease to exist, but the target address of the email itself may do so as well.
People can often go through many email addresses in the time it takes a company to collapse.
It's all fine and good until a jr. sys admin mistypes an account ID and accidentally sends out your final emails before you're dead... either to your enemies, as suggested (thereby now contributing to your death at their hands), or to your ex-girlfriends (just making you wish you were dead). So yeah, caveat emptor and all that. :-)
I call "bullshit", how are they going to release the email if they do not have access to its content?
Of course the "Web site" has access.
Why don't a company send them by snail mail. It takes longer to reach the destination but it doesn't matter since you are dead. And your street address change less often than your e-mail address.
Slashdot anagrams to "Sad Sloth"
Jesus. These people deserve to get bilked out of their money.
crib
Please don't read my journal
Perhaps, but if that part of the brain is what contains who I am, my memories and my experiences, and that is destroyed, then as far as I'm concerned, I'm dead.
Even if my brain is salvaged, the resulting person that happens to have my cerebellum, medulla and occipital lobe is no more me than someone to whom I've donated by kidneys.
As for time being on my side, you are assuming that these cryo companies/trusts/entities will have live that long. Pharaoh Rameses was buried with all kinds of stuff to help him in his afterlife... the Egyptians' beliefs aside, that stuff sure did not last tens of thousands of years.
"...hemmoroid of a horses..."
:-)
You know, being able to spell "hemmoroid" but not catching all my other spellos makes me wonder about you
Table-ized A.I.
Then write a script so that the website will be automatically unprotected when you fail for 2 days to send a specially formatted email to a special secret email address.
Then the hurricane knocks your power out for a week and your email is automatically sent.
In the internet era, our friends CAN'T know that we died. They'll just start wondering what happened when they didn't see us online.
This has bothered me for YEARS. What happens if I die? What happens to my webpages? My online friends? What will happen to the friend that maybe needed my help and didn't know I was gone for good?
In your home they'll know you're gone, but thousands of miles away?
Bravo for this service. I think it's really needed now.
That's the display department....
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
However, what if this company, instead of trying to send out an e-mail, instead stores a web page with your final message on it. Then you leave the URL of the final page in an envelope in the drawer.
This is undoubtedly the most stupid thing I have ever heard in my life.