Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Your (digital) Life After Death
Today Rudy Adler, co-founder of 1000Memories visited us here at Institute for the Future to share about his project, which links to the future of death, the future of connecting, the future of memories, and the future of storytelling.
Here is an example of a memories tribute page, designed to remind us of a patchwork quilt. It's complete with stories, photos, videos, songs, and scanned artifacts of the beloved one who has passed away at various ages and even features handwitten notes:
Rudy is a smart, genuine guy (which is important for a site that promises to preserve your memories forever.)
He opened his talk with a personal story about losing someone in his life and his company's call to action evidences big picture thinking: "We need a new oral history."
The site that results is a well-designed and interesting signal (early indicator of a future direction of change) around the future of connecting.
Here is a summary of the idea in 1 minute & 12 seconds:
1000Memories has gotten a lot of press, but my favorite description comes from a TechCrunch article that resonates with my own personal experence of the site:
Visitors are first presented with a big picture of the deceased,
presumably that one image that best captured his soul and personality.
From there it’s easy to navigate to your next step as a reader, and sign
a guest book. You can also invite others to the page at that time.
But what makes each site really rich are the stories and pictures
that loved ones add to the site. Some are silly. Others rip tears from
your eyes. But it helps fill out the picture of a man, and it helps
family and friends remember that man more richly.
We are indeed becoming People of the Screen, as our Technology Horizons Future of Video research suggests.
This experience of digital life after death is one of the more meaningful ways I've seen this come to life so far. Intrigued to see where 1000Memories will go. Who do you want to remember?
