Deathswitch: a marketing message from beyond the grave?
So here’s a curious thing. Earlier this month, the technology section in the print edition of the Sydney Morning Herald carried a small item about a curious website called Deathswitch.
The somewhat morbid idea of the site is that you can give it all your passwords and other info. It regularly emails you to check you are alive. If you don’t reply, then after a predetermined time, it assumes you’re dead and sends all your passwords to a predetermined loved one with a message such as this sample:
Dear Sarah,
This email has been sent to you by deathswitch.com, a death notification service.
You have been designated by Sandor Kline to receive the following message if he did not respond to several computerized prompts to prove he was alive over a period of time.
Dear Sarah,
It appears I have now passed from the living. Do you remember the encrypted CD that I gave to you in 2005? The password to open it is UW9JCV31. Please follow the instructions on it carefully. You know how strong my love was for you in my lifetime; it will be no less now, I imagine. And if I can find any way to communicate with you from where I am now, you know I will.
All my love for eternity,
SandorDeathswitch has no further information beyond this message that Sandor Kline designated to be sent to you.
If you believe you have received this message in error please notify Deathswitch immediately.
Sincerely,
The management at deathswitch.com
But here’s a curious thing. the domain Deathswitch.com is registered to a company called Eagleman Productions. The technical contact is listed as David Eagleman.
And next month’s Luminous festival in Sydney – curated by Brian Eno – sees an interpretation of Forty Tales from the Afterlives, a book by, wait for it… David Eagleman.
A coincidence? Dr Mumbo suspects not.
The internet, like the cake, is a lie.
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Ooh, I like a good mystery! Deathswitch always sounded perfectly legitimate – my gut instinct says it’ll stay around even if it’s a publicity stunt.
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Leslie! The cake was tasty.. its not a lie! trust me 😉
What I always wondered about this is what happens when your spam filters catch it and you no longer recieve the email to reply.
So, without any knowledge of yourself, you unwitinglym send your passwords to Facebook/Myspace to your loved ones.
You also let your wife know that you were actually having an affair with your secratary, you tell your child they are adopted.. and that you once voted for Pauline Hanson. Whilst you are still around to cop the flak
It all just seems a little too dangersous for my liking. Although my mouth is so big good luck on keeping a secret to the grave anyway!
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I suspect it is a cunning stunt (you work it out) to promote the book, like the bright yellow ugly jack whatever posters around town promoting some detective-y book.
have you sent the “error” email? That might sport some clues. And is Sandor Klein one of the character’s names? I suspect he may have a Facebook profile. But I leave that to you to continue the detective work…..
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Hi Tim,
Nice to know you read my Webwatch column the other week 🙂
Thought you might find this article interesting: http://www.deathswitch.com/deathswitch.pdf
This article for Nature, a weekly international science journal, was written three years ago by David Eagleman, who also launched the Deathwitch site three years ago (the site was launched a few months before the article in Nature came out).
It’s about the concept of “death switches”, which has been around for quite some time it seems – in real life, and also discussed in film and literature.
Eagleman is a neuroscientist and sci-fi writer – more on him at:
http://neuro.bcm.edu/eagleman and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Eagleman
It appears Eagleman has been interested in and writing about the concept of death switches for a while now. He seems a fairly fascinating guy.
I actually heard about the site through a work colleague. There were no recent media releases issued about the site or mentioning the site – none that I’m aware of, anyway.
So, if it is a publicity stunt to promote his new book, he must have planned it at least three years in advance to coincide with the upcoming Luminous Festival in Sydney.
Kudos to him for such foward planning!
Cheers,
Maria 🙂
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Thanks for that, Maria.
A bit like Arthur C Clarke writing about satellites and them becoming reality, I suppose – except in this case, it looks like the author had to do it himself.
Either way, it worked. I think I’ll try to get tickets.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I reckon Brian Eno joining forces with a neuroscientist-cum-science fiction writer who has an interest in “visual illusions” and death switches should make for an interesting night.
Wouldn’t mind going myself … might see ya there!
Cheers,
Maria
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If you spot me in the bar beforehand, the first round will be on me…