Humans seem to have a need for immortality. We also seem to have a need to understand where we came from. So here are two scenarios to help me frame a question:

Today

What would you give to know how your ancient ancestors lived? Where were they when the pyramids were built, at the birth of Jesus, during the dark ages, the Renaissance? What were their lives were like? What forces shaped their lives? How did they die? What was important to them?

2,000 year from now:

A far distant descendant wants to know what life was like for his ancestors living at the dawn of the digital age. His digital family tree shows him all his ancestors back to the mid 1900’s.  For any person in his tree he can see video, still images, writing, and conversations (and who knows what other forms of media) from that person’s entire life – birth to death. His oldest ancestor on record is a man named John Romano. Born in 1971, he witnessed the the cold war, fossil fuels, the beginning of the Net, and  global warming. He saw the birth of mobile technology, augmented reality, and ubiquitous computing.

The question is “do we want this?”

Is an archive of human history important to us or to others? Is this valuable? Do we want this? To me, this is the essential question at the center of the conversation about digital afterlife.

We’ve seen comments about our presentation at SXSW out on the Web. Thanks for all the great comments.

Companies are being born out of death by Lilly Rockwell at Statesman.com

Digital Immortals or Just Noise From the Dead? by Laura on the Dell community Web site

Outside the Frame: South by Southwest 2009 by Amanda Hirsch at PBS.org

Panel: Who Will Check My Email After I Die? by Lilly Rockwell at austin360.com

What happens to your content after you die? at SXTXSTATE

SXSW Wrap Up by Craig Rowe

Thanks to all the attendees at the SXSW festival who came out for our core conversation “Who Will Check My Email After I Die.” We had a great time and a great conversation.

We think it is a conversation that will be the center of a lot more attention in the years to come.We hope to host a panel next year where we have an archivist, archeologist/sociologist, a lawyer, and a person from the business community. Some representation from the social networks and from Google would be great too.

For me the highlight of the conversation was when we discussed products that allow you to release content (email, videos, photos) after you die. We were talking about other possible triggers that could release content. The birth of a child. Graduation. Marriage.

This idea blew my mind. The idea that you could start conversations and communicate with loved ones years after your death is a spectacular idea. @qthrul asked does “Afterlife = cron job?”

What were the things that made you go “hmmm”?

We’ve put together a guide to help you get your digital life in order in preparation for your death. It walks you through the general process that we recommend.

• List your assets
• Define your wishes
• Choose someone to execute your wishes
• And provide access and control to that person.

Download our digital-death-survival-guide, and get your life in order.

People often talk sadly about the last thing they said to or did with a loved one before they die. Petty arguments. Missed meetings. These regrets often follow the survivors for the rest of their lives.

Technology is now making it easier to send your loved ones messages that they receive after you die. The Great Goodbye specializes in sending photos, MP3s, videos, and email to your loved ones to comfort them as they mourn you death.

But the service doesn’t state that all your emails have to be love letters. You could reveal who really shot J.F.K or raise some hell one last time? Ahh. To know that you got in the last word.

Lisa, the blogger at clusterfook.com, recently died of ovarian cancer. She blogged about the disease and dying of it. Rest n peace Lisa.

Her blog was important to her so she decided that she would hand it over to her friend, Secondhand Carl.

She made arrangements. Gave him access to the admin. Now he runs the blog and is posting obituaries and news about Lisa’s death. This kind of informal arrangement seems easiest and most personal. No need for lawyers or wills. Just a person’s wishes being carried out. Nice.

Yesterday John and I sat down to discuss some of the issues surrounding the digital afterlife. At the end of our conversation we recorded the first installment of our podcast series. I hope you enjoy the podcast.

The Digital Afterlife: An Interview with John Romano

At the end of most wedding vows is the line “til death do us part.”  Death is the end of your physical life, but if your digital existence continues, when does your online marriage end?  Can the relationship between two online personas continue even if the people behind them change?  What if one partner is a figment of virtual reality?  Can it continue indefinitely?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but maybe you do.  Let’s talk about it.