Possible Futures: Digital Cremation

Social media will evolve into the "Tree of Life," the humanities of personal learning networks, where we will be able to access and experience whole life stories, events as they happened, bodies of work, creative artifacts, and legacy... primarily in an open neural net and secondarily, in a private lineage.

Digital assets will be an end of life matter to contend with and rights to a restricted lineage - where the uncut version of one's story lives - will be willable. Digital will become a recognized part of the estate with secure, embedded programable options for distribution. The richness, quality, and uniqueness of one's life will determine its potential as a monetized annuity. Digital cremation and destruction of legacy will also be an option.

We will be able to leave our legacy directly to those our lives had messages and meaning for. 

Our life memories, lessons, personal learning systems (passions, interest, collected wisdom), artifacts, and stories will be searchable, experienace-able, and tradable where allowed.

We will be able to donate our digital lives to science or for public good. Our experiences will be a part of rehabilitation programs and philanthropic initiatives, offering the authority of personal experience and relatedness as comfort and inspiration to those struggling to overcome similar trials in life, i.e. illness, career crises, addiction, family dysfunction... Transparency quickens transformation as its revealed that life struggles are not unique, problems are surmountable, and innovative solutions exist. Long after we are gone, we may still continue to contribute in unique ways to the intelligence back of personal learning networks as "digital angels." The "self-help" industry will transform, no longer a 1-way dispensary of sage advice, books, and lectures, but will evolve as a democratized, interactive, coaching/learning network, rich with humanity and sharable, relatable life experience.

We will be able to find answers to questions like, "did my great grandmother go through this when she was my age? Who did? What was she like? Can I see what she experienced, what she went through? Can I skip through her life and see how the dots connected, how it worked out in hindsight? Can I study hindsight through others life experience and extract patterns? What was her life's meta narrative, i.e., what was the whole meaning of her life?"