Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Afterlife by blogging

A table of bloggers and a bottle of wine can give birth to some deviant thoughts, One of those was the idea of blogging from beyond.

Blogger, and several of the other blog-systems, have a feature that lets you blog in the future. I can set the date on the post for a date in the future, and then it will be posted when I am dead. This is a classic set-up for the: "There is a letter with my lawyer, and if I die, it will be opened" plot in movies and books. "If you hurt me, the names and addresses of who I was to meet tonight will be published on the net tomorrow."

But we can go beyond that. Imagine writing the letter to your loved ones that you would want them to find when you are dead. Tell them how you think about death, thank them for the time you had, and let them know it was great while it lasted, and they can never lose that. Or the dark secret you never wanted to reveal, but you needed to share. How you always loved a man or woman you never dared to approach, how you were the one who was behind that drunken hit-and-run in 1994, how you could not be the father of your child, but you never told your wife you were infertile and just loved the baby when it happened to be born...

There is a huge potential for wickedness in this, as you can slander others safely from beyond the grave. There is also a potential for art and beauty, and for those with a need for it - for a kind of life after death.

I still think it would be a little morbid, and I would definitely prefer to only use it when I know I am going to a set-up where organised criminals will threaten to break my knee-caps and leave me for the ravens.

But the thought doesn't let go. Blog everlasting.

3 comments:

Francis S. said...

The mind positively boggles!

Torill said...

Oh Francis... I have been thinking of blogs for too long... I read "the mind positively bloggles."

Anonymous said...

brilliant! -John