Mobile Afterlife
Egyptian kings buried themselves with treasure, food, and even slaves. Chinese emperors made ceramic armies to command after death. What do modern people do? They bury themselves with their mobile phones, Blackberries and iPhones and iPods.
In this MSN article, funeral directors talk about how people are requesting to be buried with their digital devices. Friends may start a play list that the deceased can listen to as they go into the ground. Or friends can call mobile phones as the casket is being lowered into the earth and hear the faint ringing of the phone. I suppose people could TXT their last respects. “hey bffl. c u l8r. ily”
People crave connection. Some people have been known to keep paying the mobile account after a death just so they can continue to call the number and leave voice messages.
Electronics are making their may into the most intimate and profound rituals in life. They are becoming part of the fabric of our lives. People will mean it when they say that they can’t live without their computers. I guess they won’t be able to die without them either.
I wonder how the 3G signal is 6 feet under?
thanks aliec for the link
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Anita
This is rather touching, especially the part of leaving messages on voicemail. On Xanga, the are some blogs left behind by people who have died, and they still get visits and comments by those who miss them.
Jan 3rd, 2009
ailec
This is a serious topic…
but I can’t help but imagine that this will show up in a CSI episode….something about messages left on the deceased’s cell phone.
Okay, so, maybe the cell phone doesn’t get buried with the person. You’re right, reception at 6ft under dirt is gonna be lousy. Plus, what battery is going to last that long? I know that the actual answering service resides at some company office, but STILL…!
Maybe it goes into the tombstone (or…. do we need a new word for that? archivestone? prob need something trendier, but you get the idea). So, the archivestone would be at the “resting spot of choice”…. this would also help cover the issues of cremated people (a memorial archivestone could reside someplace for them, after their ashes get scatterd). So, the archivestone would have something like a cell phone in it (or the actual cell phone), maybe (discretely placed) solar power, and it would have some type of stored info about the person, that you could retrieve either by calling it up, linking to it, or somesuch.
See?
Jan 12th, 2009
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