Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Envoy... Digital Immortality?















What happens to you when you die? Do you rot in the ground or ascend to heaven? More importantly what kind of legacy do you leave behind? How is your memory perceived? Well life doesn't have to end at death according to Envoy. A new system that keeps your digital consciousness alive and interactive via Facebook, Twitter, etc. based off of previous communication patterns before you died. Or at least the web thought for a couple weeks.

Envoy is the brainchild of Bay Area designer, Max Batt and had people questioning if it was some kind of viral promo for a sci-fi movie or scarier yet, something real. Something Facebook was actually employing. It turns out, it was a senior thesis project... a very convincing one at that in that it got people thinking about what happens to all the digital data one accumulates in their lifetime and what becomes of it once they pass. The concept of "social mourning" is quickly becoming a reality.

For more on Envoy, check out Batt's interview with MotherBoard.

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