I Read Dead People

     I read an article last week about a guy who got an email from his deceased friend.  The email, dispatched after the sender's demise, urged the recipient to clean his dirty attic, the last place the two of them spent time together.  The best explanation for how this happened is that a prankster hacked the dead man's email account.  The article went on to explain that, if the death of a loved one isn't complicated enough for the ones left behind, these days our executors have to clean up our cyber lives as well as our natural lives.

     There are emails accounts to close.  There might be online profiles (like Facebook or LinkedIn) or blogs to shut down.  Your next of kin will have to kill you off electronically.   There are lots of websites set up to serve death related needs.  Assetlock serves as a safe deposit box where you can store files, passwords, and instructions.  You decide who has access.  Once your death is confirmed, your chosen representative gains entrance to your account.  This is probably much better than leaving a list of written instructions in a desk drawer.

     For the person who wants to live forever in cyberspace , there's Lifenaut.  You can set up a "mind file" by creating avatars and uploading content or you can create a "bio file" by uploading a copy of your DNA profile.  Why would anyone want to upload their genetic profile?

     If you would like to do a little haunting, there are websites that can help you with that.  Dead Man's Switch will release emails upon your death.  The site requires that you check in periodically.  If you fail to check in after three reminders, it is assumed that you are dead, and the emails are released.  There's an oops factor there.  Another site, Eternity Message, will (for a fee) send emails for up to 60 years.  Sending a birthday greeting to the grandkids all the way into their old age could be a cute idea, but this site also has the potential for evil.  You could be stalked by your mother-in-law or bitter ex-wife long after you thought you were rid of them.  There is also something called voice banking.  You record yourself so that future generations can hear your voice.

     Humans have always suspected that the dead are trying to stay in touch.  In the old days they did it through dreams and visions.  As technology developed, they used the telegraph, radio, and telephones.  Does anybody remember the Twilight Zone episode in which a boy gets phone calls from his dead grandmother - on a toy phone?  You can watch the entire episode on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOwKT-lAZCo

Doo-doo-DOO-doo, Doo-doo-DOO-doo.