The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care
A short, thought-provoking book about what happens to our online identities after we die.

These days, so much of our lives takes place online—but what about our afterlives? Thanks to the digital trails that we leave behind, our identities can now be reconstructed after our death. In fact, AI technology is already enabling us to “interact” with the departed. Sooner than we think, the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. In this thought-provoking book, Carl Öhman explores the increasingly urgent question of what we should do with all this data and whether our digital afterlives are really our own—and if not, who should have the right to decide what happens to our data.

The stakes could hardly be higher. In the next thirty years alone, about two billion people will die. Those of us who remain will inherit the digital remains of an entire generation of humanity—the first digital citizens. Whoever ends up controlling these archives will also effectively control future access to our collective digital past, and this power will have vast political consequences. The fate of our digital remains should be of concern to everyone—past, present, and future. Rising to these challenges, Öhman explains, will require a collective reshaping of our economic and technical systems to reflect more than just the monetary value of digital remains.

As we stand before a period of deep civilizational change, The Afterlife of Data will be an essential guide to understanding why and how we as a human race must gain control of our collective digital past—before it is too late.
1143881481
The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care
A short, thought-provoking book about what happens to our online identities after we die.

These days, so much of our lives takes place online—but what about our afterlives? Thanks to the digital trails that we leave behind, our identities can now be reconstructed after our death. In fact, AI technology is already enabling us to “interact” with the departed. Sooner than we think, the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. In this thought-provoking book, Carl Öhman explores the increasingly urgent question of what we should do with all this data and whether our digital afterlives are really our own—and if not, who should have the right to decide what happens to our data.

The stakes could hardly be higher. In the next thirty years alone, about two billion people will die. Those of us who remain will inherit the digital remains of an entire generation of humanity—the first digital citizens. Whoever ends up controlling these archives will also effectively control future access to our collective digital past, and this power will have vast political consequences. The fate of our digital remains should be of concern to everyone—past, present, and future. Rising to these challenges, Öhman explains, will require a collective reshaping of our economic and technical systems to reflect more than just the monetary value of digital remains.

As we stand before a period of deep civilizational change, The Afterlife of Data will be an essential guide to understanding why and how we as a human race must gain control of our collective digital past—before it is too late.
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The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care

The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care

by Carl Öhman
The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care

The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care

by Carl Öhman

Hardcover(First Edition)

$22.50 
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Overview

A short, thought-provoking book about what happens to our online identities after we die.

These days, so much of our lives takes place online—but what about our afterlives? Thanks to the digital trails that we leave behind, our identities can now be reconstructed after our death. In fact, AI technology is already enabling us to “interact” with the departed. Sooner than we think, the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. In this thought-provoking book, Carl Öhman explores the increasingly urgent question of what we should do with all this data and whether our digital afterlives are really our own—and if not, who should have the right to decide what happens to our data.

The stakes could hardly be higher. In the next thirty years alone, about two billion people will die. Those of us who remain will inherit the digital remains of an entire generation of humanity—the first digital citizens. Whoever ends up controlling these archives will also effectively control future access to our collective digital past, and this power will have vast political consequences. The fate of our digital remains should be of concern to everyone—past, present, and future. Rising to these challenges, Öhman explains, will require a collective reshaping of our economic and technical systems to reflect more than just the monetary value of digital remains.

As we stand before a period of deep civilizational change, The Afterlife of Data will be an essential guide to understanding why and how we as a human race must gain control of our collective digital past—before it is too late.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780226828220
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 05/22/2024
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Carl Öhman is assistant professor of political science at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Collective Matter
The New Natufians
What Do We Do with the Digital Dead?
Everyone’s Concern Chapter 1: From Bones to Bytes
Beginnings
The Deep Time of the Dead
The Portable Dead
The Port from Which We Depart
Where Are We Now? Chapter 2: How to Think about Digital Remains
What Are Digital Remains?
Ghost Cars and Prayer Bots
The Informational Corpse
Can the Dead Be Harmed?
The Digital Encyclopedia of the Dead
Brutus’s Closet
Not So Valuable After All? Chapter 3: The Rise of the Digital Afterlife Industry
Ash & Martha
The Digital Afterlife Industry
Critiquing the Industry
Online Museums Chapter 4: Who Owns the (Digital) Past?
Grave Dangers
Who Is Worth Preserving?
What If Facebook Goes Bust?
Orwell’s Warning
Decentralizing Control Chapter 5: Living in the Post-Mortal Condition
In the Shoes of Max Brod
The Meaning of “Post-Mortal” and “Condition”
Archeopolitan Duties
What Is to Be Done? Epilogue

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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