How to be an overnight centenarian
August 28, 2023
Friends, are you anxious to leave a legacy in this world? Something that keeps your essence alive for your descendants, and for the unborn generations that won’t have the pleasure of knowing you before you check out?
You could freeze your body ( or just your head), so if medical science ever cures what ailed you, you’ll be thawed out fresh as a daisy for your second act. But if that sounds a tad extreme, take heart because you can now extend your digital life for the next century!
The folks at WordPress who host my blog (and hopefully won’t vaporize it if they read this post) are offering a “ 100-Year Plan “ for maintaining digital assets. It sounds like a sort of online museum or mausoleum for families who want to hold onto their history, business leaders seeking to document their achievements, and anyone who needs a long-term home for the electronic remnants of a life.
WP promises to keep your domain active for the duration with top-tier hosting, multiple backups, and “24/7 Premier Support.” Just think: you can upload all 23,971 of your photos and videos, 30+ years of work email, web pages, love letters, diplomas, pickleball awards, music, paintings, unpublished novels, whatever!
Best of all, you can curate the stuff to leave a glorious impression of your probably imperfect self. It’ll be like writing your own eulogy instead of trusting it to relatives who won’t even miss you. You can probably take a few posthumous potshots at the exes who dragged you down, the bosses you loathed, and that kid who gave you a wedgie in fourth grade.
If all this appeals to you, that’s great. But when I’m gone, my blog and all my other digital footprints go with me.
As a genealogy enthusiast and the husband of a librarian, I know the importance of preserving the things that make us who we are. I’m just not delusional enough to think my mostly ordinary life will interest anyone in 2123, especially since I have no children to remember me or foist off the site on their children.
I also don’t see how the company will, “adapt to whatever changes the future of technology will bring,” because nobody’s crystal ball can peer that far ahead. Most of us had no idea until very recently that AI would threaten to upend everything. Besides, we won’t get “Premier Support” if WP goes under and no one answers the phone, email, or whatever we’ll be using to harass each other in the 22nd century, if we haven’t fried our planet to a crisp by then. (No one thought climate change would get this serious this soon either.)
I hope to leave a legacy of good writing when my time comes (and to see what I’ve produced so far, check out my author site). I’d also like to be remembered for my smashing good looks, like the dazzling blue eyes that remind people of Paul Newman. But I’ll be happy if y’all just recall my sense of humor.
Originally published at http://davesswan.wordpress.com on August 28, 2023.
