Not Life After Death -- Email After Death 312
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.'"
Spam! (Score:5, Interesting)
People tend to last longer than dot-coms. (Score:5, Interesting)
mine's gonna read (Score:2, Interesting)
thank you (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I'd rather leave an instruction with a lawyer to send that 'last email' (if I were so inclined). This .dom is likely to pass well before I do.
Re:Spam! (Score:4, Interesting)
*sigh* (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mine is going to read... (Score:2, Interesting)
Dead Man's Switch (Score:1, Interesting)
We use our computers for almost every aspect of our lives; shouldn't they help smooth our passing as well? Dead Man's Switch can protect or pass on your data and inform key persons of your untimely demise. You can set Dead Man's Switch to perform a number of tasks if you don't log on to your computer for a specified period of time. It can send out e-mail, encrypt or delete files, and post to web sites.
Remember to reset the time allowed on the switch before you leave on vacation. You don't want to scare anybody
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description
Re:People tend to last longer than dot-coms. (Score:5, Interesting)
Furthermore, the people you want to send that last e-mail to might change addresses even while you're incapacitated for the last few years of your life. I think the old letter in a drawer might be the better answer.
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.
You'd still have the problem of whether the company will stay in business longer than you live. If you operate your own web site, you might as well set up the page yourself. You could even keep on a hidden page in an otherwise visible site. Leave the URL in that envelope in your desk drawer. If you're smart, you'll also set up a cron job to periodically wget or curl the page, to ensure that it doesn't accidently get deactivated, or otherwise screwed up.
Actually I smeel WORMS/Viruses (Score:3, Interesting)
For those interested in freeware... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Cryonics is NOT a big corporate scam... (Score:2, Interesting)
As for the chances of success: yes, I think it somewhat likely that I will be revived someday in some form via some type of futuristic neuroarchaeology.
As far as I can tell, all of what humans are is in the brain, stored as some sort of information. Whatever you know or remember or think or feel, it all comes from your brain, or nearly all of it.
So, if you lose one brain cell tonight when you sleep, are you not the same person tomorrow? What if you lose 1000 cells? A million? Where is the threshold? IF you lose the memory of your first football game, as you no longer the same person?
So, if what you are as a person is stored as information, and not all of that information is needed to be the same person, can enough of that information someday be recovered through neuroarcheaology in the distant future?
Surely not tomorrow! 10 years from now? 100? 1000? 10,000 years? Once you get into the Liquid nitrogen, chemical processes for all practical purposes stop. You can last for thousands of years unchanged.
So, if the technology to recover your "information" is not available in N years, then wait K years, and try again. Increment time interval and repeat until done.
Anyway, at least it does ease the sting of death. When I breath my last, I will go knowing that there is a chance I will wake up in a future where people live thousands or even millions of years. And why not billions of years? Who knows what fate awaits the universe? We do not even yet understand what the universe really is....
Dangerous game... (Score:4, Interesting)
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The True Geek Solution (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"strict privacy"? (Score:2, Interesting)