I’m very interested to look at ways in which our mortality and ‘immortality’ are digitally archived on online platforms. With the continuous rise of ‘technological innovation’ as an ideology and figures like Musk who justify Earth’s colonisation of Mars as a means to ‘archive human consciousness’ if the humanity is ever wiped out, this raises important points of discussion as to the lengths ‘innovation’ will go. When looking at past historical events, such as the destruction of The Great Library of Alexandria, which was the largest library of the Ancient World, we will never know what we have gained or lost, yet humanity has always been able to continue despite the ‘loss’ of knowledge we never knew.

Taking a decolonial approach to Western standards of ‘archiving’ which seeks to constantly preserve knowledge past our own death, I propose to look at the archival of our own deaths, particularly on digital platforms. Oxford researchers believe that by the end of this century, Facebook will have 4.9 billion ‘dead users’ on its platform (if it still exists).

For myself, I struggle in thinking whether it’s ‘okay’ for extensions of ourselves to digitally live on while our body, mind, and soul have transcended somewhere else? With the death tech market exponentially growing due to the pandemic, I also fear this will open up a pandora’s box that we aren’t equipped for…