Yes. On a tombstone. The same blurry image sweeping the globe in newspapers can be put on your tombstone. As I listened to this on my tiny Am radio to the newstalk station where I live, I immediately knew, this must be the right subject for this section of the forum. It opens such an amazing world for gothly geeks of the sort I aspire to belong.

Now as you walk among the plots in winding roads you come across a blurry image on someones tombstone. You hold your smartphone up to it, scan the image, and learn about who the corpse is. No more wondering how the person might have lived, what they wished to tell the world, who they loved, what they liked, and how they died.

The possibilities for this new technology will shake the world. Will there be restrictions for the sort of Information going on to this? Will there be a limit on how much information, or sensorship on what can be said? I invite you to share your view of how the future will accept this new technology.

What if you were asked if you would write your own messages and share on a variety of topics, your own tombstone page? Would it be a portfolio style or just basic information?

What would you want random people to know about you when you die?

- Night Owl

I haven't seen what you're talking about, but it sounds like you're talking about matrix (QR) codes. It's a data matrix, or set of data matrices, each of which can hold 2,335 alphanumeric characters, so it would probably be a wedsite address with information, pictures, videos etc.

As far as the question of sensorship, it's all a matter of who has control of the site. It would most likely be the family, and every family is different. Some families might try to sensor their dearly departed's whole life, who knows... I'm sure there would be some legal recourse if you had a site on your towbstone that said "so-n-so murdered me" and it was proven that the person didn't actually murder you. They could call it libel... I mean we are already in a situation of being under the influence of sensorship, so saying "will there be sensorship" is kind of late to the point, yes there will be sensorship of what can be said.

I personally think the matrix codes look really cool. I saw a report about people getting them tattooed on them.

"What if you were asked if you would write your own messages and share on a variety of topics, your own tombstone page?"
I'd put my whole biography. Anyone who wanted to know about me would have to work for it. I'm not interested in summerizing my existance.

~Meo

There are a few competing ideas for introducing technology to headstones right now. There's a guy I am friends with on facebook who has an idea where a solar cell and a display can be put into a headstone to allow it to display pictures or movies or whatever on motion trigger. IIRC it is even designed so that it can be refurbished for someone else & reused once it's no longer needed.

I think any time technology is added like this, it's best suited to cultures where headstones are intended to be temporary markers because of plot recycling or those green burials where nothing is intended to be "left forever." The technology probably will have a much shorter life span than traditional carved stone markers. But that's not a bad thing considering that the modern cemetery model is failing. People don't put a lot of planning into their plots anymore [there are of course exceptions] so they'll just go buy a cheap pre-made stone from a local mason and have the names & dates filled in the blanks, and then trucked to a cemetery that's largely barren of landscaping & with plots packed together like sardines to maximize profitability. These McHeadstones on McPlots don't get a lot of visitors [in the US we're talking an average of two intentional plot visits after the internment services by friends or family, and most of those being nearer the time of internment than away] and that's probably made worse by a mobile society where people frequently move from city to city/state to state. With half of all marriages ending in divorce it can't even be assumed that couples will be buried together, to say nothing of whether their kids will remain in the area so we're talking a lot of individuals on tiny individual plots next to each other [meaning a lot less incentive for more elaborate memorials]. These places aren't designed to be community green spaces like the Rural Cemetery Movement, and the public doesn't normally use even those for that anyway. Sure tourists will go to certain famous cemeteries for the aesthetic, but most of those cemeteries are left overs from another era. The few modern cemeteries that can pull a crowd are the unusual ones [like where Michael Jackson was buried] and aren't filled with cookie cutter headstones on a flat grassy field.

So I do think that these kinds of markers, used in a temporary scheme, combined with green burial is the future.

Frankly I believe there is enough scrutiny of my life and actions while living. For Heaven's sake, let me rest in peace.

Can't say I'd want that that on my tombstone. The idea of someone passing by and then looking at my pictures doesn't sit right by me. Now if I can possess their cell phone and make long distance calls while they're unaware, that would be more my thing.

To be honest though, I don't want to be buried. Why do I want to be buried next to some person I never even heard of, or have people walking on my grave? I want to be cremated, and have my ashes launched into space like Gene Roddenberry.

But knowing that I'll probably end up having a tombstone, I don't want any information placed on it. I just want my name, my DOB-DOD, and my branch of services. If they want more than that they're gonna be SOL.

DeadBook. Look up your favourite stiffs onine and :like: them.

I love technology, but I don't think it has to be applied to everything. Some things just need to remain old fashioned and this is one of them. If this keeps up, we're going to become a cyberpunk and probrably get trapped inside of something like the Matrix. This world still needs some pieces of humanity still left in it.

Says the person with a Major Kusanagi avatar image. The irony made me chuckle.

Yes, and I just changed my avatar right before reading this. I'm off my Ghost in the Shell high and gone back to a more neutral avatar. Lydia Deetz was my first exposure to goth before I knew it had a name. My cousin always points out how much we have in common on our yearly Beetlejuice movie night.

I know it sounds contradicting from a technology geek like me, but I don't want forget I'm human no matter how much I become a fan girl whenever I walk into a Best Buy.

Is there anything you would want on a webpage, accessible through an app icon on your tombstone, that would not fit on your tombstone?

For me, a full list of things I want the world to know so people can co-operate more and teach new generations.