We all know it’s coming, it’s just a precarious matter of knowing—or trying to—when and where it’s going to happen. Sadly, we don’t, can’t and never will, but that doesn’t stop us from contemplating the inevitable and wondering around which corner that creepy faceless effigy, the Grim Reaper, hides his corpse-loving embodiment.
Death, by default is the end, the ultimate, no more, finito. While many of us embrace the fact we will soon meet the inevitable and shrink into an abyssal darkness in the recesses of the world’s mind, there are as many of us who would love the chance to be the one to linger in the minds of our friends, enemies, colleagues, lovers and partners after this day dawns. But how, one might ask?
Thanks to if i die (note the use of incorrect title case and that its name suggests that death is not in fact a certainty, but a possibility), we now can be. It’s a most curious digital creation that allows the most common of person to impart their dying words upon those of us who care by way of a pre-recorded video. Genius.
Once upon a time, this luxury was afforded to only the most educated of people in any given era. Take, for example, dear Willy Shakespeare, who is said, died on his birthday. Ironic, much? Now look at him, nearly 400 years ago he rid the world of his presence and still, we’re speaking of him and reading his brain twitchingly romantic prose. Clearly, they struck a form of post-death gold back then, which has now been reproduced in a modern-day, easily digestible form.
By way of utilising the magic of Facebook and its intangible webs of networks and administrative powers, the deceased can permit a message to be released posthumously by a trusted friend. It provides the user—and would-be recently departed—with the power to admit to a long-lost love their affliction of romance, tell a secret joke, pass-on a secret family recipe, stipulate a will or exact verbal revenge on an enemy.
Admittedly, these intriguing and albeit commonly shared schools of thought don’t oft swirl through the minds of the living until after the fact. Much like the unfortunate ‘Damn I should have said that’ thought that rushes through our consciousness after a conflict of any description. So, best get thinking people.
Published on 9 February 2012 by James Banham