Thanatos and technology have bonded. The use of thanatechnologies through the rise and integration of internet services has seen death become part of media and computational logics. Social practices and conventions of death and grieving are moving online. Like with other aspects of mediatisation research, media-embedded processes driving social change are becoming the norm. The paper studies this procedural change on death - how big data services and applications are dealing with notions and possibilities of a computational afterlife.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
METHOLODOLOGY
THANATOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY
DEATH IS IN THE AIR
CRITICAL DATA COMPANIES
Alphabet
APPLICATION OF A DIGITAL LEGACY
Perpetu
LivesOn
With Me
POSTHUMANIST DEATH?
CONSUMPTION AFTER LIVES
Research Objectives and Key Themes
This paper examines how the integration of big data services and applications into contemporary life is transforming the social and cultural practices surrounding death, effectively creating a "computational afterlife" that big data companies curate and capitalize on.
- The intersection of thanatechnology, media studies, and big data infrastructures.
- The phenomenological analysis of death within digital environments and neoliberal capitalism.
- Corporate custodianship of posthumous identity and digital assets.
- The impact of applications such as Perpetu, LivesOn, and With Me on the conceptualization of digital legacies.
- Ethical and philosophical implications of posthumanist "data fetishism" and algorithmic immortality.
Excerpt from the Book
THANATOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY
The renowned feud between psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud is said to be primarily driven by their dispute of Thanatos. Whilst Freud saw death as the primordial opposite of life, ‘purely destructive, deadly and evil’, Jung’s work ‘moves Thanatos closer to existential-phenomenological thinking about the fears and aspirations attached to the image of death' (Welman 2000). Death can, therefore, be seen as the phenomenological embodiment of the Self’s existence, imagination, and meaning.
For Jung, death was a state of repose. The arch of life made death inevitable and expected, possibly desired, inducing a psychological state that symbolically connects finitude to conceptions of the Self – a mysterium coniunctionis (Jung 1962). Thanatology puts death within this archetypical symbolism, ‘still far in the distance and therefore somewhat abstract’ (1930). This hermeneutical approach makes the abstraction of death vulnerable to subjective mediation, having it’s meaning constantly being negotiated, adapted and practiced. Ideology then, both political and technological, shapes and modulates the conceptual grounds of Thanatos. If ‘the unconscious psyche believes in life after death’ (Jung 1930), then the conscious psyche appropriates an afterlife as existential to being alive.
Summary of Chapters
INTRODUCTION: Establishes the emergence of thanatechnologies and the normalization of computational logics in death and grieving practices.
METHOLODOLOGY: Defines the use of a phenomenological approach and Critical Data Studies to investigate big data giants and their management of posthumous life.
THANATOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY: Explores the psychoanalytic and existential framing of death, positing how the ego-Self interacts with thanatological symbols.
DEATH IS IN THE AIR: Discusses the accumulation of digital footprints and the migration of life into a computational format governed by cloud infrastructures.
CRITICAL DATA COMPANIES: Analyzes the roles of Alphabet and Facebook as curators of posthumous identity and custodians of user data.
APPLICATION OF A DIGITAL LEGACY: Critiques specific legacy management applications like Perpetu, LivesOn, and With Me that automate the digital after-Self.
POSTHUMANIST DEATH?: Addresses how data fetishism and posthumanism are creating "sensual singularities" that challenge traditional notions of existence.
CONSUMPTION AFTER LIVES: Connects thanatechnology to neoliberal-capitalism, highlighting the exploitation of desire in the creation of social and cultural capital.
Keywords
Thanatechnology, theoretical, big data, computational afterlife, new media research, digital legacy, posthumanism, data fetishism, Thanatos, ego-Self, neoliberal-capitalism, algorithmic identity, cloud computing, phenomenology, death studies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental subject of this research paper?
The paper explores the intersection of death and technology, specifically how internet services and big data infrastructures are reshaping social, cultural, and psychological practices related to dying and bereavement.
What are the primary thematic fields addressed in this work?
The core themes include thanatechnology, the digital curation of posthumous identities, the role of corporate data management, and the philosophical implications of posthumanism on mortality.
What is the central research question?
The paper investigates how big data services and applications are dealing with notions of a computational afterlife and how this influences our changing relationship to death.
Which scientific methodology is applied in this study?
The author employs a phenomenological analysis combined with Critical Data Studies to evaluate the social and cultural conditions surrounding modernized death practices.
What is covered in the main body of the paper?
The main body examines the corporate strategies of companies like Alphabet and Facebook, the functionality of digital legacy apps, and the broader existential implications of commodifying the "after-Self" within a capitalist framework.
How would you characterize the work using keywords?
The paper is characterized by terms such as thanatechnology, big data, computational afterlife, digital legacy, posthumanism, and algorithmic identity.
How does the concept of "Thanatos" function in the paper's analysis?
Thanatos is used as an archetypical lens to understand how death is reimagined through technology, specifically focusing on the ego-Self's relationship to mortal finitude in a digital context.
What specific role do applications like Perpetu and LivesOn play?
These applications act as "computational funeral directors," allowing users to automate their digital legacy and simulate a persistent social afterlife through algorithmic processing of their personal data.
What is the author's argument regarding neoliberal capitalism and death?
The author argues that neoliberal capitalism exploits human desire and the aspiration to transcend death, turning the curation of one's posthumous online existence into a lucrative source of social and cultural capital for tech companies.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Henry Appleyard (Autor:in), 2017, Computing After Lives. The Bonding of Thanatos and Technology, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/386557
