Digital Remains, Grief, AI, and What it is to be Human

Hope in a Polycrisis

In a time of technological manipulation, tech dominance, even tech fascism — do we have any cause to hope? I think so. And in March 2025, I explained why, at the Berlin Salon: part of the Polyopportunity, a yearlong initiative of The House of Beautiful Business [https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com], the Acosta Institute [https://www.acostainstitute.com], and The Holon Institute [https://theholoninstitute.org]. This podcast contains a re-recording of the talk I gave at that event. www.elainekasket.com [http://www.elainekasket.com] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeontech.substack.com [https://lifeontech.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Why Everyone Should Care about Digital Afterlives

Why do digital remains – the data left behind when we die -- matter to everyone on the planet...not just two thirds of the world connected to the Internet? Why is it true that we live inside the Internet, or inside of an archive? What are our responsibilities to the digitally preserved dead and to history, and how do our current ways of dealing with the dead connect us to ancient history? What happens when we combine AI with digital remains? Are we entering a new era of dead labour? Host Dr Elaine Kasket [https://www.elainekasket.com], cyberpsychologist and author of Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World [https://www.elainekasket.com/reboot] and All the Ghosts in the Machine [https://www.elainekasket.com/all-the-ghosts], explores fascinating intersections of psychology and technology with equally fascinating guests. This week she speaks to Dr Carl Öhman [https://www.katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N21-57] of Uppsala University in Sweden, formerly of the Internet Institute. Dr Öhman is best known for predicting, in conjunction with his colleague David Watson, the date at which the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. His upcoming book is The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die, and Why You Should Care [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo209942751.html]. University of Chicago Press is releasing it in April 2024. Music used under license from Epidemic Sound [https://www.epidemicsound.com]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeontech.substack.com [https://lifeontech.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Digital Remains, Grief, AI, and What it is to be Human

When we combine the existence of ‘digital remains’ with current and emerging technologies, we arrive at some pretty weighty and interesting questions about what it is to be human, and what it is to really relate. In getting to grips with these topics, I can’t think of a much better conversation partner than Mórna O’Connor. Dr Mórna O’Connor is currently involved in a four-country research consortium about digital death: Digital Death: Transforming Rituals, History and Afterlife [https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/digital-death-transforming-history-rituals-and-afterlife], or DiDe for short. This recent blogpos [https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/digital-death-transforming-history-rituals-and-afterlife/blog/a-digital-age-reboot-of-the-stages-of-grief]t gives a sense of her thinking/work at the moment. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeontech.substack.com [https://lifeontech.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Reboot Chapter 9: The Bytes of the Great Beyond

What’s a ghostbot? Have you ever encountered a digital zombie, and could you become one? Should there be a legally binding ‘do not bot me’ clause in your will? How about a digital do not reanimate me (DDNR) order? When we mix the popularisation and accessibility of large language model (LLM) AI with ‘digital remains’, what happens? Are we entering an era of dead labour, when the knowledge and the labour of the past can be concretised in the data that we leave behind, and exploited for profit? Professor Elaine Kasket [http://www.elainekasket.com] is author of Reboot: Reclaiming your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World [https://www.elainekasket.com/reboot] and All the Ghosts in the Machine: [https://www.elainekasket.com/all-the-ghosts] https://www.elainekasket.com/all-the-ghostsThe Digital Afterlife of Your Personal Data [https://www.elainekasket.com/all-the-ghosts]. In this Reboot episode, she speaks to two close colleagues about why now is such an important moment to confront the reality of digital afterlives. Dr Debra Bassett is the author of The Creation and Inheritance of Digital Afterlives: You Only Live Twic [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91684-8]e, a Visiting Fellow at the Open University, and a digital afterlife consultant [https://debra-bassett.com/]. Dr Edina Harbinja is Reader at Aston University Law School [https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/persons/edina-harbinja], has worked in ‘digital death’ or ‘digital immortality’ or ‘digital legacy’ for more than a decade, and is the author of Digital Death, Digital Assets and Post-mortem Privacy [https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-digital-death-digital-assets-and-post-mortem-privacy.html]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeontech.substack.com [https://lifeontech.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

REBOOT Chapter 6: Adulthood

Is technology a third wheel in your relationship? How does it come into the interactions between you? Does it help, or does it get in the way? This week, speaker and author Elaine Kasket [https://www.elainekasket.com] is in conversation with Kara Fletcher [https://www.uregina.ca/social-work/directory/faculty/kara-fletcher.html] about technology-related issues in couples relationships and the connection between tech use and attachment styles. Attachment styles are patterns of relating and responding in relationships, and they include secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganised. While there’s not a straight line from infant/childhood attachment and adult attachment patterns — a lot of things can influence our reactions and responses in relationship — there’s a significant correlation. For more information, check out the LifeOnTech newsletter on Substack. You can buy REBOOT now in the UK, wherever books are sold. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeontech.substack.com [https://lifeontech.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]