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Shouldn't my descendants be able to easily browse and use them?

I'm not so sure... there's a lot of things I've written that, looking back a year or two later, I wish I hadn't, yet alone other people reading them too.

And I'm not talking about the generic big examples that people talk about like "that picture of you on facebook throwing up" or anything, just small things, whether it's an MSN conversation where I over-reacted and acted like a complete dick, flirting with someone on MSN in what is later obviously a really embarassing way, or that time I told my friend that my mum/child/brother was boring/annoying/whatever me.

And of course secrets, whether they're ones I want to keep from certain people, or something private that I don't want anyone knowing, but for some reason wrote about in a not-for-public-eyes personal diary sort of way.

I don't know how much there is that I don't want other people seeing, but I know I've seen old stuff I've written/said/done/made that I cringe at now, and I'm sure there's plenty more that I just haven't noticed.

I've thought that. But when I look at those things 5 years later, I realize that it all wasn't such a big deal, and I kind of cherish the ability to see how I thought back then (sometimes I'm more ashamed at how little has changed in 5 years as far as my thought-process and writing style goes).

I'm not so sure... there's a lot of things I've written that, looking back a year or two later, I wish I hadn't, yet alone other people reading them too.

And yet there's also value in seeing the change in someone's thoughts over time. We're not born perfect, but we can try to get better.

I've often done similar cleaning of chat logs and emails from times when I thought I had acted stupidly or naively. But that's just us trying to live up to the idealistic visions that we have of ourselves. Having a record of who you actually were, not who you wished you were, could be refreshing.

> It seems to me that somebody should invent a "life processor" that would collect these traces of our former selves and allow us, after death, to somehow more actively participate than we've ever done before.

All I could think after finishing the article was, "I sure hope she has those messages backed up somehow." Too many horror stories of Google locking up someone's account with no hope of getting it back. (And yes, that could happen with any service provider, she just happened to mention that she's using Gmail).

Sincerely, I'd prefer all my digital remains to be cremated.

Same here; I do like to keep an archive for myself, but it's safely stored in a truecrypt volume and I don't think I'll ever share that password.

Your grandchildren will be able to crack that in seconds. :-)

Haha.. a nice thought. Moore's law as time capsule.

The name for this concept is "lifestream". Lots of projects have attempted it, but nothing has really taken off yet AFAIK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestreaming

http://memolane.com/site/ seems to have done a great job and will possibly only get better.

We are trying to bring together the past and the present (realtime) memories together with http://momment.com

Other great example is http://1000memories.com but this is more of analog memories to digital artifacts as far as I see.

Actually one of the guys I go to school with is looking to do that. He's creating a site that aggregates all of your social networks among other things and stores them creating a sort of digital timeline. I'm not real sure on the details as he's still developing it, but the way he described it to me is that social networks focus on the now while his site is meant to preserve the past.

I'm working on the same thing! Where are you guys located?

Iowa. How about yourself?

This is a concept that interests me... where are you in Iowa? I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska.

This is a concept that I've (also) thought a lot about and started hacking on, but right now it looks like http://lockerproject.org/ has a head start.

He knows about Friendfeed, right?

I think this could work. Create an offline repository of logins, and agree to only access them after a hundred years (or proven notice of death).

It would be opt-in of course. Maybe ran by Archive.org? Or as a for profit venture, promising to pass your info on to your family after you die.

Of course, ideally, they would worth in union with service providers. So they would agree to keep your data safe that long, and so that it could be deleted after your death, so no one can pose as you.

Maybe it should be a site like LastPass or PassPack that regularly logs in for you and backs up your data for eventual dissemination post-death? Providing the password service in the meantime?

The main problem I have with this lifestream idea is with how all the data is in one central location online. Because it is connected to the internet, there is always the possibility that it could be attacked.

It would be a relatively enticing target. If the lifestreams of thousands, not to mention millions, of people were mined, the information found in there would be priceless.

Of course, if it is a piece of software you can run yourself, and you can save your whole lifestream on your own storage devices, I think it is a wonderful idea.

google does this. They know everything about you. they know you better than you know yourself. and they have never fading memory with infinate storage