7 ms·

Wind Telephone: A disconnected rotary phone for "calling" lost loved ones

26 points by curtis 9y ago

arkades 9y ago
I can’t speak to my fathers grave: it is disconnected from him, by definition the one place he most certainly never was. I can’t speak at the sky; I’m not any sort of believer. Despite our never texting, though, I recently found some great comfort in texting my thoughts to him. Texting is already such an asynchronous form of communication, it didn’t feel like talking to myself. Apparently the phone company has reassigned his cell number, though. So it really didn’t feel like talking to myself when I got a text back asking me to stop.
- rmason 9y ago
  At the end of his life my late father would call me four times a day. One of the hardest adjustments for me has been getting used to those calls not coming. I'd always call my dad every time I made an out of town trip. He'd worry so I always would let him know that I'd returned home safely. Multiple times I've had the phone in my hand, start to dial his number and stop. Grief is a bitch folks.
gfody 9y ago
Thomas Edison worked on the two-way variant of this: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas-edisons-least-successful-invention-the-spirit-phone https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
psergeant 9y ago
> Know Before You Go Don’t go, leave it for the people who need it
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- ars 9y ago
  > Don’t go Who are you saying that to? Maybe the person reading the article needs it?
gumby 9y ago
This is reminiscent of the untraceable phone hotline in The Shockwave Rider (the 1975 novel that gave us the term, and idea, "computer worm"). In this case the worm protected the anonymity of the "Hearing Aid" -- you could call that number, say whatever you liked, and at the end someone at the other end would say "only I heard that" and hang up. The ability not to be overheard is becoming increasingly precious.
zw123456 9y ago
I know it can seem a little silly but I know for me, when my Mom passed away I sort of struggled with deleting some voice mails from her. I know I could have transferred them to hard drive but in the end it seemed like the right thing to sort of let the 1's and 0's go off into the ether-sphere along with her spirit.
mmorearty 9y ago
This American Life had a nice segment about this phone. It's one of the stories on this episode: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i...
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  One of their most memorable episodes, definitely worth the listen.
jayess 9y ago
I've occasionally sent emails to a friend of mine who passed... despite getting bounce backs.
hliyan 9y ago
I'm wondering whether I should make some recordings (or even train a chatbot) to respond to these type of calls if/when I'm gone. Already, when I go through my past email & chat archives, I see that there is enough there to reconstruct my responses to most day-to-day questions. But I personally believe that humans forget the faces and voices of departed loved ones over time by design. We're not meant to relive pain but to gradually have the associated memories overwritten by new ones. Our digitally augmented memories are an impediment to completing the grieving process. But then again, I'm a person who feels grief in a very muted form so I'm not really qualified to pass judgment here.
zeeZ 9y ago
There is a 2016 documentary about this by NHK: https://youtu.be/ke-H5EEqvRs https://youtu.be/ke-H5EEqvRs This is not an official channel, but it's completely gone from their website.
Dowwie 9y ago
Spielberg ruined this for me. The child Carol Anne in the movie poltergeist could communicate with the spirit world through her child's toy phone. I can't think of anything redeeming about a spirit phone because of this.
purplezooey 9y ago
It's like the Wave Organ in SF.

26 points by curtis 9y ago

I can’t speak to my fathers grave: it is disconnected from him, by definition the one place he most certainly never was. I can’t speak at the sky; I’m not any sort of believer. Despite our never texting, though, I recently found some great comfort in texting my thoughts to him. Texting is already such an asynchronous form of communication, it didn’t feel like talking to myself. Apparently the phone company has reassigned his cell number, though. So it really didn’t feel like talking to myself when I got a text back asking me to stop.

rmason 9y ago
At the end of his life my late father would call me four times a day. One of the hardest adjustments for me has been getting used to those calls not coming. I'd always call my dad every time I made an out of town trip. He'd worry so I always would let him know that I'd returned home safely. Multiple times I've had the phone in my hand, start to dial his number and stop. Grief is a bitch folks.

gfody 9y ago

Thomas Edison worked on the two-way variant of this: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas-edisons-least-successful-invention-the-spirit-phone https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

psergeant 9y ago

> Know Before You Go Don’t go, leave it for the people who need it

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ars 9y ago
> Don’t go Who are you saying that to? Maybe the person reading the article needs it?

gumby 9y ago

This is reminiscent of the untraceable phone hotline in The Shockwave Rider (the 1975 novel that gave us the term, and idea, "computer worm"). In this case the worm protected the anonymity of the "Hearing Aid" -- you could call that number, say whatever you liked, and at the end someone at the other end would say "only I heard that" and hang up. The ability not to be overheard is becoming increasingly precious.

zw123456 9y ago

I know it can seem a little silly but I know for me, when my Mom passed away I sort of struggled with deleting some voice mails from her. I know I could have transferred them to hard drive but in the end it seemed like the right thing to sort of let the 1's and 0's go off into the ether-sphere along with her spirit.

mmorearty 9y ago

This American Life had a nice segment about this phone. It's one of the stories on this episode: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i...

SyneRyder 9y ago
One of their most memorable episodes, definitely worth the listen.

jayess 9y ago

I've occasionally sent emails to a friend of mine who passed... despite getting bounce backs.

hliyan 9y ago

I'm wondering whether I should make some recordings (or even train a chatbot) to respond to these type of calls if/when I'm gone. Already, when I go through my past email & chat archives, I see that there is enough there to reconstruct my responses to most day-to-day questions. But I personally believe that humans forget the faces and voices of departed loved ones over time by design. We're not meant to relive pain but to gradually have the associated memories overwritten by new ones. Our digitally augmented memories are an impediment to completing the grieving process. But then again, I'm a person who feels grief in a very muted form so I'm not really qualified to pass judgment here.

zeeZ 9y ago

There is a 2016 documentary about this by NHK: https://youtu.be/ke-H5EEqvRs https://youtu.be/ke-H5EEqvRs This is not an official channel, but it's completely gone from their website.

Dowwie 9y ago

Spielberg ruined this for me. The child Carol Anne in the movie poltergeist could communicate with the spirit world through her child's toy phone. I can't think of anything redeeming about a spirit phone because of this.

purplezooey 9y ago

It's like the Wave Organ in SF.