Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in The Afterlife According To Google

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

adriaan verstijnen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:24:19 -0000

This is exactly the new project we are working on.
Since our introduction at the SIME-conference http://portal.vpod.tv/SIME_... in 2007, we have been investigating the possibilities for the creation of what can be described as Virtual Immortality. We also spoke about this subject on The Next Web Conference, april 2008 in Amsterdam and are invited to speak about this at Loic Lemeurâ€™s LeWeb, in Paris and we are preparing for a "world tour". The first part of this investigation was all about establishing a clear description of the exact meaning of identity itself. The Buddhist notion of Emptiness is what gave us such a usable definition of identity. Buddhist philosophy states that identity is not so much the form, but the space, the difference, the emptiness between entities. Stated otherwise, your identity consists of all your relations to the world, and all the worldâ€™s relations to you. We will call that your conceptual identity. As an organization we are interested in internet-based Conceptual Identity Preservation. The project with which we try to accomplish this goes by the name 1ive0n1line.

Food for thought

The first challenge tackled by us was to establish a clear and usable description of the exact meaning of identity. The answer we found in the Buddhist notion of Emptiness, stating that identity is not so much the form, but the space, the difference, the emptiness between entities. Stated otherwise, your identity consists of all your relations to the world, and all the worldâ€™s relations to you. We call this Conceptual Identity.

Food for action
We are currently building a system for the web-based preservation of this Conceptual Identity. It will enable people to establish a digital representation of their Conceptual Identity. Together with all other Conceptual Identities, this will lead to an increasingly detailed description of not only all participating individuals, but also everything else in their / our world that is worth mentioning.
Every identity and every bit of information in this system will be described purely by their relations to other bits and identities. Every unique concept will have its own special place in this system. Virtual identities are thus formed by the coordinates in this multidimensional space of concepts.

The internet is making us immortal.
Keep an eyeball on our blog, cellspace dot nl to stay informed ;-) As you all will understand we can not talk about the subject too much. We have a lot of work to do.
Aatski.

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Ling — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:37:06 -0000

Best line was the last one. It would be nice to think that people are still visiting your pages after you're gone, but I'd rather I was still around to feel good about it.

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Halo — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:18:33 -0000

Ok so after you die, the contributions you've made online will continue to provide benefit to other people after you die. So what? It might make an interesting conversation after a few drinks but to me the bigger issue is privacy and the invasion of it by google.

Halo http://www.dragonlasers.com

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Victor B. — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:47:20 -0000

This is one of the themes of Douglas Hofstadter's latest book, I Am a Strange Loop. Not an easy read, but fascinating nonetheless.

Jon Udell (http://blog.jonudell.net/) also has some interesting posts on "persistent lifebits". Check out http://del.icio.us/judell/l... .

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Sean P. Aune — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:27:06 -0000

Oh yeah, all $4 I make a month, WOO! My surviving family members will never have to work again! :P

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

CountRob — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:26:57 -0000

If Google empties their cache or there is a HD failure, you're gone for good.

Plus in 2050, who knows if the internets will still be around. It might be like Planet of the Apes or something.

Check out MyDeathSpace, they have profiles of every myspace member that died.

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Hdunce — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:19:02 -0000

@chuck allen, exactly. i've thought about this a lot. maybe when we create the 1 standard online profile account that everyone has to have which holds all your info, there should also be a "dead" button that your loved one clicks so that all your other online profiles get notified and the profile status changes to "this person is unfortunately dead".

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Chuck Allen — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:08:03 -0000

Beyond "immortality" via Google, I've wondered about the practical issues with the dead within social and business networks. I shouldn't joke, but "I see dead people on LinkedIn and Facebook." I actually don't think they should remove the dead, but perhaps work on a way to establish and distinquish the dead from the living. I'm not trying to make light of a serious topic - but I'd guess that it is pretty hard for a social network to distinquish the dead from the living.

Here's one case in point, a friend, mentor, and boss of 10-years (across two employers) is now among the departed. I think he's still part of my social/business history, but obviously not a good resource for an "instant reference check."

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Sean P. Aune — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:53:19 -0000

And you are absolutely right. When I wrote the "Preparing For Your Death Online" list, that totally came out of thoughts about my own mortality, and what will happen to my blog after I pass. Will it just sit there until the billing runs out? People surfing in and reading my posts, never knowing I met my end due to an unfortunate encounter with a badger?

It is somewhat gratifying to know a record of my "life" will be out there for years to come, but without doing something memorable, why would someone even search on my name 5 - 10 years after I pass? Sure, it would still be out there in the ether, but who would really care?

Re: The Afterlife According To Google

Rex Pechler — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:36:52 -0000

good stuff. interesting ideas.