China Pilots Digital Burials and Funeral Services as Population Ages (bloomberg.com) 48
Facing a rapidly aging population and land scarcity, the Chinese capital is piloting burial spaces with electronic screens instead of headstones. From a report: When someone dies in Beijing, the body is typically cremated and the ashes are buried behind a gravestone in one of the city's public cemeteries. Family and friends gather at the site to light candles and burn incense to pay their respects. Zhang Yin, a local resident in her 40s, chose a very different burial rite when her grandmother died earlier this year: She had her ashes stored in a compartment of a large room at Beijing's Taiziyu Cemetery, almost like a safe deposit box at a bank. An electronic screen on the door of the compartment displaying pictures and videos of the deceased replaces the traditional headstone. It's a land-saving option that's also more affordable and dovetails with the growing trend of Chinese families wanting more personalized funerals for their loved ones.
"Traditional cemeteries are outdoors, exposed to the wind and sun," Zhang says. "If you bring your kids there, they will only see bare graves, which has no meaning to them. For digital cemeteries, families can watch the photo display of deceased relatives together in a hall." Zhang says her grandfather gave his approval for the digital funeral because he's very receptive to new things -- and, by coincidence, the niche storing her grandmother's ashes is the same as the number of her grandmother's old house. Both local governments and funeral companies in China are experimenting with new ways of conducting burial rites as the country confronts urban land scarcity and a rapidly aging population.
"Traditional cemeteries are outdoors, exposed to the wind and sun," Zhang says. "If you bring your kids there, they will only see bare graves, which has no meaning to them. For digital cemeteries, families can watch the photo display of deceased relatives together in a hall." Zhang says her grandfather gave his approval for the digital funeral because he's very receptive to new things -- and, by coincidence, the niche storing her grandmother's ashes is the same as the number of her grandmother's old house. Both local governments and funeral companies in China are experimenting with new ways of conducting burial rites as the country confronts urban land scarcity and a rapidly aging population.
Virtual Reality Afterlife (Score:3)
For some reason when I first saw this I immediately thought of virtual reality visiting with your dead relatives AI persona or something like that.
Re: (Score:2)
There is a show for what you described, Upload on Prime.
First season is marginally interesting but couldn't hold my attention. The concept is interesting.
It's comical as the living pay to store and provide perks to those who have passed and chosen to be preserved in a virtual reality (don't piss off you living wife from the afterlife, she can make it hell...).
Re: (Score:3)
That show gets much better as it moves along and delves into how it, essentially, establishes an eternity of "us" vs. "them." Rich people get a better heaven. Poor people "live" in suspended animation when the funds run dry for a month. Basically aware, but unable to do anything but sit still and stare blankly. Good times.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah... it looks like this one more step forward to the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror. That was (oddly) the only episode of Black Mirror I can think of where the future tech seemed like an actual benefit to humanity?
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking of the third episode of Cyber City Oedo 808. However, instead of being on the ground, the storage containers were at the end of a space elevator.
Longevity of digital data? (Score:4, Insightful)
With a gravestone or a headstone that has information carved into stone, the information lasts a very long time -- as in centuries -- and doesn't require maintenance or ongoing support. If someone has a digital gravestone, how long will the information last and be available? Imagine if your burial marker was data stored on a floppy disk or some other obsolete technology that is not longer really accessible. What happens when related computing hardware gets old and fails (and the company that is supposed to be maintaining the data goes out of business)?
It's a separate discussion as to if it is appropriate for folks to have a long term marker of their final resting place or not, but there is a significant number of people who believe that this is important. For those people, is a temporary (in the technical scheme of things) marker appropriate?
Re:Longevity of digital data? (Score:5, Interesting)
With a gravestone or a headstone that has information carved into stone, the information lasts a very long time -- as in centuries -- and doesn't require maintenance or ongoing support. If someone has a digital gravestone, how long will the information last and be available? Imagine if your burial marker was data stored on a floppy disk or some other obsolete technology that is not longer really accessible. What happens when related computing hardware gets old and fails (and the company that is supposed to be maintaining the data goes out of business)?
It's a separate discussion as to if it is appropriate for folks to have a long term marker of their final resting place or not, but there is a significant number of people who believe that this is important. For those people, is a temporary (in the technical scheme of things) marker appropriate?
For most of us, all we will have left behind a hundred years after our death is a headstone. I can't decide for others, but in the end, once I'm gone, and everybody that remembers me is gone, does the headstone matter or is it just more trash we've created for some future version of humanity?
We're a throw-away culture. Now we can find ways to throw away our last trappings. I don't know that it's such a horrible thing. Those with the means can still have their family mausoleums. The rest of us? Meh.
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly. As Nicholas Cage said in "Lord of War": "I don't wanna be remembered at all. If I'm being remembered, it means I'm dead".
Re:Longevity of digital data? (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. As Nicholas Cage said in "Lord of War": "I don't wanna be remembered at all. If I'm being remembered, it means I'm dead".
I'm a fan of the concept that it's not "you" that should be remembered. If you want to leave a memory behind, let it be one of ideas. My grandest hope is somebody happens across a copy or two of my books long after I'm gone and still manages to get a few chuckles and a few wows out of it. I don't particularly care if anyone remembers the life those words sprang from. The characters? The words themselves? Sure. But me? I care about the moments I live through and the people alive at the same time as me, and I care that there are people in the future. I'm a part of now. Let my memory die with me.
Gat dang, that's awfully deep for a Thursday afternoon sans drugs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Are you saying comment your code?
When it comes to such nonsense, I respond the same way as my uncle did when asked whether he had life insurance:
Hell no! I want them to miss me when I'm gone!
Re: (Score:2)
Small minds discuss people. No one remembers how big Sun Tzu's dick was.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you asked Biden, though? /joke
Re: (Score:2)
Huh. Maybe we should trade our books amongst ourselves.
Re: (Score:2)
Huh. Maybe we should trade our books amongst ourselves.
Be happy to. I've got two in print. A third on the way. And I always keep copies for trading with other writers or just handing out to the curious.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah... I never submitted mine. They just sit in electronic format somewhere on my server. :)
Plus, I would have to translate them to English
Re: (Score:2)
But if you would be kind enough to share the titles, I would check them out and possibly buy them, depending on genre, that is :)
Re: (Score:2)
Genre's a tough one for me to nail down, but on the surface it's sci-fi / fantasy / horror. Lots of other things manage to make an appearance though. It's basically a twist on Supernatural, but set in the far future on a spaceship.
The main title is "The Hollander Chronicles." Episode 1 (The Messiah of Death) is basically a romance draped in sci-fi and horror. Episode 2 (Of Friends and Escalation) turns things up a bit, and the romance becomes a thread among many. Episode 3 (title pending) goes batshit. End
Re: (Score:2)
Good, good, me likey.
I have found your books on AMazon.fr (no, I am not French, but live in the EU). I will order them.
As for me, I wrote a collection of grim/depressive very short stories (1 to 6 pages each), a short fantasy novel written from 1st person point of view and I am working on an epic Space Opera / cyberpunk collection of novels. I pray to keep it under 1m words... but I am afraid I'll lose that bet.
None were published, mind you. Probably never will.
Re: (Score:2)
Good, good, me likey. I have found your books on AMazon.fr (no, I am not French, but live in the EU). I will order them.
As for me, I wrote a collection of grim/depressive very short stories (1 to 6 pages each), a short fantasy novel written from 1st person point of view and I am working on an epic Space Opera / cyberpunk collection of novels. I pray to keep it under 1m words... but I am afraid I'll lose that bet. None were published, mind you. Probably never will.
I would never make a under 1m words bet with myself. I've written tons of short stories, tons of novel-length stories, but only one giant epic. This one is the one I tell people will likely take me the rest of my life. The main thread is a space captain with some family secrets meets a vampire she can't resist and their relationship spins up a whole new view of the universe for humanity. But then there's side-thread stories already piling up around the main plot as the new god becomes more clear and the peo
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, thanks for the interest. It's tough selling indie books. Any interest is appreciated.
Re: (Score:2)
I sent you an e-mail :)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll keep an eye out. Don't see it yet. Hope it doesn't get spam-blasted. I've had some real issues lately with that.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure it did arrive in SPAM or something.
Well, you can send me one e-mail at my nickname, gmail domain.
Re: (Score:2)
I sent ya something. Hopefully mine makes it through. :)
Re: (Score:2)
I built some products that keep time as the number of seconds since 2000/01/01 00:00:00 using an unsigned 32 bit integer, and if I don't make it to the 2060s when it overflows I'm hopeful that at least one person will remember my name when they curse it.
Re: (Score:2)
I built some products that keep time as the number of seconds since 2000/01/01 00:00:00 using an unsigned 32 bit integer, and if I don't make it to the 2060s when it overflows I'm hopeful that at least one person will remember my name when they curse it.
One of the few joys of being a programmer. "Can't wait for some poor bastard to stumble over this shit when I'm gone!"
Re: (Score:2)
Donald Trump, is that you?
In case anyone didn't get the reference, it recently emerged that the whole Trump family hasn't been maintaining the grave of Donald's first wife, and mother of his children. She was buried on one of his golf courses, and the site is now overgrown.
Some people do derive a lot of comfort from maintaining their decreased relative's grave, although it tends not to last more than a generation or two.
Re: (Score:2)
Donald Trump, is that you?
Hard no
In case anyone didn't get the reference, it recently emerged that the whole Trump family hasn't been maintaining the grave of Donald's first wife, and mother of his children. She was buried on one of his golf courses, and the site is now overgrown.
Some people do derive a lot of comfort from maintaining their decreased relative's grave, although it tends not to last more than a generation or two.
Failure to maintain a grave site generally doesn't cause the data carved into stone to be lost. At some time in the future access to the data can be restored by trimming back the vegetation. This is in sharp contrast to a digital gravestone where if the equipment isn't maintained (and periodically upgraded), the data becomes lost forever.
A Diamond is forever... or until you burn it. (Score:3)
Diamond takes up less physical space than ashes... just sayin'.
https://algordanza.ca/trusted-... [algordanza.ca]
Re: (Score:2)
Diamond takes up less physical space than ashes... just sayin'.
https://algordanza.ca/trusted-... [algordanza.ca]
"Cremation diamonds start at $3,699 CAD for a 0.30 ct rough diamond..."
At those prices you could probably be jettisoned into physical space on a future ash-sat, coming soon to a Musky Crematorium near you...
Dystopia (Score:2)
how much power does this use 24/7? is an sensor (Score:2)
how much power does this use 24/7? is an sensor to trun the screens off when no one is in the room?
Digital part is new; box in building is not (Score:3)
In Asia, putting cremated ashes in a box and storing large arrays of boxes in a building has been very common for a long time. The digital part is new. That may not be obvious for Western audiences.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps my wifes boyfriend will even let her pay for it.
Amen, brother. Amen.
Re: (Score:2)
Space is an issue even in many Western countries. The Japanese have an interesting system where ashes are placed at a family grave site which is quite compact. An extra wooden rod with the person's name on it is added. It makes tending to your ancestor's graves much easier, as well as preventing exponential increases in the number of graves required for the population.
I'd go with cremation, but if my wife outlives me she can do whatever makes her happiest. I'd insist on being an organ donor, but I'm not all
Cyberpunk 2023 (Score:2)
This is almost exactly what they have set up in Cyberpunk 2077 when you go to visit the "grave" of someone for a quest.
Al Czervik of "Caddyshack" (Score:1)
This’ll be presented (Score:2)
In unrelated news... (Score:2)
Chinese Video Headstones (Score:2)
China Unveils Video Headstones: Because Text Epitaphs are Just Too 20th Century"
In a move that makes 'Black Mirror' plots look like child's play, the Chinese government has introduced a new policy that will revolutionize the burial industry: video headstones. Because nothing says "rest in peace" like a continuous loop of Grandma's favorite TikTok dances.
The Ministry of Eternal Rest and Unusual Burial Practices (MERUBP) announced the policy this week, stating that traditional headstones were simply too
Digital: Pretend you're doing it if you're not (Score:2)
If you want to avoid the effort and expense of doing something by pretend-doing it, call it "digital".
Even better (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If the goal is to save space (Score:2)