Death on forums

I think it is easy to feign a death, if no one can see you in person. I mean, that is the entire downside of the internet. I would probably assume it was a troll at first, and then things would come together if it were true. Sad.

With decency.

James Lee wrote: If I go while I'm still spending time of the forum, I just want someone to say "thank god, he's finally out of here for good this time." if I can, I'll try to respond from beyond the grave...

Maybe you could just die for a couple of weeks

Peter wrote: With decency.

Man With Hat wrote: Pale Fire wrote: ...while the other half made comments similar to "Wow, I don't give a sh*t, hope he has a fun time being dead." It raises an interesting question... Do you think there is any right way to react to this situation/How would you react if something like this happened? Some people can really be insenative assholes. I don't care how much you dislike or even hate a person, he has just died. They need to show some respect . They don't have to say anything nice, but at least be respectful.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

It also raises the question - "how would we know?"

Consider how many members have joined here since the beginning last year, and how many (once prolific posters) are no longer seen here.

I'm in a fairly unique position in that my wife is now a member, so should one of us 'reach the clearing at the end of the path', the other would (I imagine) eventually tell somebody here; how many partners/loved ones of Archive members would even think to make a posting in this situation?

We all make the necessary phone calls etc when someone passes away, but what of online communities? Many people around the world are now members of such Forums, and although we never meet, there are (I believe) quite strong e-friendships forged on occasion - an interesting (if maybe a little morbid) question, especially as it is one which would not have been asked as recently as 10 years ago...

Hmmmm - excuse me, I'm off to visit a more cheerful thread

Is there any reason to think that everyone who appears on this forum is actually a living being?

I mean, aside from having no reason to think otherwise and the idea being completely implausible.

How fully developed would an artificial consciousness or disembodied persona have to be to seem like an actual person who posts messages? Most of the time, we get such a limited picture, a small segment of anyone's personality. Once it gets to the point where anyone can pretend to be whoever they like, how far is the step to nothing presenting itself as an actual person? I know some coders who can run a very complex bot and fool just about anyone who isn't specifically looking for flaws in the programming.

We leave a lot of personality bits on the net. Perhaps one day all this digital debris accidentally evolved, the way organic matter did, eventually creating an entity capable of some form of self-consciousness and spontaneous communication. In that way the dead could truly come back to life, or at least the parts of them that had been uploaded.

At any time we could be chatting with someone- without realizing that there is really nobody on the other end.

 

(boo)

Jim Garten wrote: James Lee wrote: At any time we could be chatting with someone- without realizing that there is really nobody on the other end A bit like phoning NTL customer services in the UK, then...

Have you ever had the indignity of having to speak to an automated menu? I'm fine with having to "press 1 for Yes, press 2 for no" but actually being prompted to say something out loud to these recorded voices is just weird.