If you’re reading this, I am currently on vacation. This is a pre-recorded announcement. Make sure your tray tables are in their full, upright position. Kindly extinguish all cigarettes. Pay attention to the monitor.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us the opportunity to ruminate about many things.
Although I cannot find the link, I read somewhere that the musician/artist Peter Gabriel has a huge backlog of music set up which will release his now-unpublished songs and music at set intervals after his death for several decades after he dies.
I think that is a fascinating concept, and I want to encourage it here. So, to avoid naming specific people here who I think should do this, and doubtlessly embarrassing them, my generic suggestion is as follows:
Predict the approximate date of your demise (based on natural conditions; if death occurs otherwise the same protocol can be tweaked slightly). Then write a Diary (or post, if you will) and simply schedule it (or them) to appear on the site after that date.
For example, I had a dream that has stuck with me through the years that I would die at age 92. That would be approximately 2057. The scheduling function on Daily Kos allows you to schedule a Diary to appear on this site in 2057 (it’s true, try it!). So I will be scheduling a post to appear for July, 2057 in the near future.
And, what’s more, if you so choose you can actually dominate the conversation that day in 2057 or whatever date you choose. Simply schedule several Diaries to appear at one, ten, or 60 minute intervals, for example. By doing this you can ensure that everyone could be reading your work, listening to your thoughts, here all day, literally decades in the future, in effect, creating a time capsule that will last as long as this site lasts. If you intend to post more than once, however, I recommend starting a DailyKos group and appropriately designating your post as “deceased post” or something like that, rather than scheduling to simply appear on the “Recent Diaries” list (And [note to self to discuss with Admins] to avoid clogging up the “Recent Diaries” list with posts from the dead, there should probably be a special link directing interested readers to a specific group feed where such posts will appear).
And if the site goes defunct for some reason, well...the internet never forgets, right?
So, if you have something you wish to communicate to future generations, and wish to ensure that it is heard, that’s how you do it.
This is, of course, an easy and fairly rudimentary way of speaking from beyond the grave. Of course, it assumes that 30 plus years from now people will still be physically writing into a medium which people access with their eyes, rather than directly interfacing with their brain, for example. It may be that the act of reading and writing itself has gone by the wayside, and your future posting will be treated as a novelty of sorts, like a 78 RPM record.
And recent AI advances may make it unnecessary for you to actually write anything yourself at all. If you have a substantial past ouevre, for example, an AI algorithm can “learn” your writing style and with appropriate prompts (such as subject matter), and by scanning current news and media stories, can formulate a post that (in a few years) will be indistinguishable from anything you write here by yourself.
It’s also reasonable to assume that AI will also be able to mimic your reactions and opinions about things before too long, so if you’re feeling lazy about speaking from the grave fifty, sixty or a hundred years from now, you will probably be able to “fake it” with a push of a button in the near future. Presumably, AI technology would also be able to comment and respond to comments in your post, and even recommend posts that “you” would have recommended if you were alive.
As previously noted, I am on vacation.
You heard it here first.
…..or, did you?
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