From Immediate Cremation After Death to Digital Immortality?—An Analysis of Personal Digital Heritage
The definition of digital heritage in the era of the internet is facing new challenges.In the digital age,personal digital information without property value can still become digital heritage due to its unquantifiable emotional value.Digital heritage not only includes digital assets such as online banking accounts and virtual currencies in people's traditional beliefs,but also includes all digital assets that can constitute"individuals themselves."The digital self and its unquantifiable emotional value can both become digital heritage.The characteristic of digital heritage is"virtual",which determines its high degree of dependence and must rely on online platforms to exist.Digital heritage is generated by platforms,and the user's usufruct and the dominance right is incomplete and limited.The virtual degree of digital heritage is directly proportional to the degree of dependence to online platforms:the higher the virtual degree of property,the higher the dependence to online platforms,and the stronger the platform's discourse power;On the contrary,the lower the virtual degree of property,the weaker the dependence on online platforms,and the stronger the legal protection for digital heritage inheritance.Super-humanism always holds an optimistic attitude towards such issues,attempting to create"virtual humans"or social robots that inherit all personal digital memories and information,transforming the preservation of personal digital heritage into"digital immortality".This approach is not feasible and faces many challenges:whether the"digital self"can serve as a"human"right has not yet been unified,and it goes against digital equality,becoming a projection of the unequal landscape in the real world.The super-humanistic approach of reshaping the"digital self"and achieving"digital immortality"through digital heritage is not advisable,as it is only the wishful thinking of some technology workers.From the value level to the institutional level,the only way to achieve"digital immortality"can only be through the protection and inheritance of personal digital heritage,integrating personal value into the contributions of the human world to showcase it.The significance of digital technology is not only to provide humanity with a more convenient way to record and store digital memories,but also to provide inheritors with a way to sort out the development and evolution of technology,truly understand and think about how to better"inherit"personal digital heritage through new digital technologies,and achieve personal"eternal life"through inheritance."Digital immortality"should be achieved through the reasonable protection and inheritance of personal digital heritage.In practice,it is more urgent to identify qualified digital heritage managers and explore management rules for personal digital cemeteries.But in the maintenance of the digital cemetery for the deceased,respecting their privacy should be the top priority.In the selection of ideal inheritors of digital heritage,although digital platforms have a direct relationship with the decedent of digital heritage,they are not eligible inheritors of personal digital heritage.Launching a"Digital Account Administrator"to be in charge of personal"Digital Cemetery"is a feasible approach to solving the problem of personal digital heritage.
Digital heritageDigital selfInheritance subjectDigital cemeteryDigital immortality
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