Status update from the beyond?

When they say that social networking is addictive, they are really not kidding. While it may seem spooky to some, there are a couple of online tools that will allow you to post on social networking sites long after you are dead. Hard to believe? Well, if you were to search the Internet, then you will come across several such online services that allow you to do just that. 

Social Networks

If you are looking for a service to update Facebook, then head to ifidie.net, it has a Facebook app that allows you to leave messages in text or video format. How it works is after registering for the app, you can record your message and then nominate Facebook friends as Trustees. The job of the trustees is to notify them of your death. The idea is to nominate as many friends as trustees (in case the one you have nominated dies before you) and it has a minimum requirement of three trustees to confirm your death. After receiving the confirmation of your death, as a precaution you will be contacted and a buffer period gets activated. If they receive no communication from you after the buffer period, then assuming you are dead your messages will be published. And no, the trustees you nominate will not have access to the recorded message before it is published.

Crave fame? Try your luck in death

While the app may seem frivolous, the founder of the app Eran Alfonta came up with the idea following his friend's near death experience after having involved in a car accident. They realised how fickle life could be and thought about ways to be able to leave messages for their loved ones. This formulated into ‘ifidie’. Taking it a step further in August 2012, they launched a premium service that allows you to send personalised messages to recipients of your choice. And if you missed out on fame while you were alive, then you can try your luck in death by participating in their if i die 1st initiative. You can sign-up, leave your message and if you happen to be the first user to die, then they promise you that your last words will be immortalised, as it will be given wide coverage on leading media websites, blogs and newscasts.

A somewhat similar service is LastWrite. After creating your account, you can write letters or choose to post something on your Facebook. It works differently than ifidie, in a sense that its database is linked to the U.S. Social Security Office. The Social Security Office is informed of a person’s death and the same is updated on LastWrite's system. A list of expired social security numbers is updated on a daily basis on Lastwrite and when the system finds matches, it sends out your letters. Here you have a greater control, as you can choose to send letters on email addresses of the recipients of your choice or have your Facebook page updated. You can even choose when you want to send the letters or post the update on Facebook, as it allows you to set a date that could be your first death anniversary or any other significant date.   

Find out what your next Tweet could be

When it comes to Twitter, you have the option to use tools that allow you schedule Tweets and you can easily set Tweets to be posted even 20 years down the line. There are many such tools you can use, like TweetDeck, Twuffer, Hootsuite, SocialOomph and many more. But, of course, whether or not these tools and not to mention Twitter itself, survive the test of time is difficult to say. But if they do, then rest assured that your Tweets will see the day of light and if you are still alive and active on Twitter, then it might just spook you as well. And if you are long gone and your account hasn’t been terminated following a request to do so by your near and dear ones (your close ones can get your Twitter account terminated after submitting proof of your death and establishing their relationship with you), then rest assured that your Tweet from the beyond will cause quite a buzz.

There are even several sites online that will predict what your next Tweet could be—all you have to do is provide your Twitter handle. It’s not necessarily a tool to be used to analyse what the next Tweet of a dead person could be, but more of a fun app that runs on an algorithm that will analyse your Tweets so far and then predict your next Tweet. If you like what you see, then you can share it on Twitter. Right now the results are bit gibberish, but as the idea catches up, we are sure we will see algorithms that predict better results.

You've Got Mail

If the idea of sending emails appeals to you, then you might want to check Dead Man's Switch. You can write email messages for the recipient of your choice and they will be sent to them after you have departed. How does it know you are dead? Well, the service will email you at regular intervals and you have to respond to those. If you do not reply, then it will keep contacting you and after sixty days of your last response, it will send out those emails. With the free account you can leave messages to two recipients. At twenty dollars, you can opt for a lifetime account with which you can leave messages to hundred recipients. You can also check DeathSwitch that works on a similar premise. Here, with a free account you will be able to send message to one recipient, but no attachments. And with a premium account that will cost you around twenty dollars, you can attach files like videos, images or documents and can send 30 messages and include up to 10 recipients for each message. Alternatively, you can look at free service EternityMessage, which allows you to schedule messages and images to be sent at a future date as set by you. But here there is no death switch and the messages will be sent when you have scheduled them for; it doesn’t wait for a death trigger.     

Write emails to be sent to your loved one's after you die

Digital Avatar

Going a step further, you can also create your digital avatars for posterity, so that your loved ones can interact with your digital avatar after you have departed. There are a couple of sites like LifeNaut and VirtualEternity with the help of which you can achieve this. LifeNaut offers the Mindfile feature, which will basically create your digital avatar based on the information that you share, which includes memories, images, videos, documents etc. In fact, the people behind LifeNaut.com have created Bina48, a social humanoid robot, based on the information, memories, beliefs, etc. collected from several people including Bina Rothblatt, co-founder of LifeNaut.

You can easily create your virtual avatar

Its abilities include face recognition, voice recognition, head & eye movement and conversational ability amongst others. LifeNaut has proved that by combining detailed information about a person and using artificial intelligence, it is possible recreate a persona of an individual. VirtualEternity is another such platform that allows you to create your digital life-like avatar, or Intellitar as they are referred to. A person can use the platform to train the avatar to reflect their personality by uploading images, providing voice training, taking personality tests etc. Your avatar then answers questions based on the data that you have provided. 

These are but a few, as there are many such services available on the Internet that allow you to digitise your experiences in the form of memoirs, send emails, update social networking sites, etc. But, of course, even if you sign-up for all these services for whatever motive, whether or not you succeed will largely depend on their existence. However, you won’t be able to find out whether you succeeded or not, because you will be long dead!