- 12/03/2018
- Category: Commentaries
Death has generally been disregarded from the discourse of digital disruption due to its slow pace of change. Today, technological revolutions in the death and funeral industry have progressed way beyond 3D-printed urns, biodegradable burial pods, and memorial diamonds.[i] Numerous funeral homes now offer online memorial services for their clients.[ii] As of February 2018, Digital Beyond noted that there are at least 56 sites dedicated to digital postmortem services.[iii]
The digital disruption of death is imminent. Therefore, the question that we need to ponder now is: how far can it go?
Benchmarking current transformations
Digital disruptions in the death and funeral industry can be understood on two distinct phases. The first level occurs within the providers of end-of-life services, where attempts to digitalize memorial services were initiated. Recently, the bar has been raised higher. The second phase of disruption has already enabled humans to continue interacting with their loved ones after their death[iv] — more on this will be elaborated subsequently. Innovations created in this phase may potentially redefine the entire concept of life and death.
In the first disruption level, funeral service providers are increasingly using digital resources to promote and enhance their services. Such attempts include offering digital collaborating services for families of the deceased to organize memorials. In this first phase, FrontRunner Professional noted that there are five funeral technology trends that need to be anticipated in 2018, presented in the figure below.
Figure 1: Funeral technology trends to anticipate in 2018[v]
As we move steadily towards the second phase, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data become more prominent — and it revolutionizes the whole industry.
A recent breakthrough brought by Hereafter Institute made it possible for people to attend their own mock-funeral, an epitome of digital postmortem services.[vi] The organization generated the mock funeral by combining the entirety of a person’s Facebook data to learn of their likes and dislikes. Participants stated that seeing the extent of their data helped them to be more mindful in sharing information online.[vii] Therefore, through the use of such automated services, we are now able to pre-plan our passing ceremony based on what we post online. The aforementioned example is just one of the many innovations made possible by technological disruptions in the death and funeral industry.
Currently, these innovations can be classified into three categories: online memorials, digital postmortem services, and digital representatives.
Online memorials are the simplest form of automated services, enabling people to digitalize mementos and share memories of the deceased with others. Digital postmortem services help us to manage our digital assets prior to our death. This includes sending private information to our next-of-kin and creating automated last testaments.
Lastly, digital representatives employ image recognition, voice recognition, and other applications of AI to combine our online footprints in generating a digital persona that can continue living after our death.[viii] These personas take various forms, from chatbots to 3D avatars. Currently, the personas are still limited to a digital form. At the moment, this is the most sophisticated embodiment of digital disruption in the death and funeral industry.
A prominent example of the aforementioned innovation is Dadbot, a chatbot that was generated from the audio recordings of James Vlahos’ father.[ix] Vlahos started to record his father when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. After his father passed away, he combined the data into an algorithm that allows him to continue interacting with his deceased father.
Another notable example is Eterni.me, a service that aims to generate a digital persona of their deceased users that can “live forever”.[x] As of now, Eterni.me’s developers are focusing on collecting their users’ data, while at the same time developing the technology to generate these digital personas. As of March 7, 2018, 39.484 people[xi] have signed up for Eterni.me’s services.
Below are some of digital death management services which are leveraging on the innovation / AI disruption of ‘post-mortem’ management industry.
Figure 2: Several notable digital death management services
A step towards (digital) immortality
Judging from the current data and trends, more breakthroughs in the death and funeral industry can be expected soon. These innovations will change the way we commemorate the deceased, therefore potentially redefining the conventional concept of loss, life, and death. An expected breakthrough may include the use of state-of-the-art automated-processes that transcends virtual and augmented reality — allowing the digital persona of the deceased to embody a physical form. Alongside the sophistication of technology, we are currently a step closer to achieve (digital) immortality.
Editors: Diah Ratna Pratiwi, M.Dev & Nabeel Khawarizmy Muna, S.IP
Picture: Unsplash
[i] Erizanu, P. (2018). Organic burial pod turns your body into a tree. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[ii] Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet. (2017). Funeral Technology: Where Death and Innovation Meet. [online] Available at: https://tedium.co/2017/10/26/funeral-technology-innovation/. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[iii] The Digital Beyond. (n.d.). Digital Death and Afterlife Online Services List. [online]. Available at: http://www.thedigitalbeyond.com/online-services-list/. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[iv] Bearne, S. (2017). How your digital self could “live” on after you die. [online]. Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40935790. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[v] FrontRunner Professional. (2018). Funeral Home Technology Trends to Watch in 2018. [online]. Available at http://blog.frontrunnerpro.com/funeral-home-technology-trends-2018-part-2/. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[vi] Frances, K. (2016). Your digital life after death. [online]. Available at https://ideas.ted.com/your-digital-life-after-death/. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Bearne, S. (2017). How your digital self could “live” on after you die. [online]. Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40935790. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
[ix] National Public Radio. (2017). Creating a ‘Dadbot’ To Talk With a Dead Father. [online]. Available at https://www.npr.org/2017/07/23/538825555/creating-a-dadbot-to-talk-with-a-dead-father. [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].
[x] Biggs, J. (2017). In the future there will be mindclones. [online]. Available at https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/16/in-the-future-there-will-be-mindclones/. [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].
[xi] Eterni.me. (n.d.) Available at http://eterni.me/. [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].
