5 ms·
The rise of the dead: How many ghosts are on Facebook?
- danshapiro 16y agoIt would be fascinating to calculate when the dead on Facebook will outnumber the living. Anyone able to interpolate based on the data provided + Facebook's growth rate?
- dot 16y agosounds like a movie.. i like how you think.
- alanh 16y agoIf the number active (alive) Facebook users grows at a sufficient exponential rate, e.g. each new generation has at least 2× the users of the last generation, then the answer would be “never” Edit: Um, humans do grow in population in an exponential pattern… how long do you think the population has been at 6.8 billion?
- Psyonic 16y agoLast I checked humans are limited in supply. AI users though...
- eru 16y agoCurrently there are many zero AIs, as far as we know.
- tmorgan 16y agoWell, populations are typically modeled as a sigmoid function, they only appear to be growing exponentially. I think it's fair to assume total population will stabilise whilst we are still resource limited to Earth.
- jules 16y agoIt seems that we are at the inflection point of the sigmoid: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/World-Population-1800-2100.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/World-Pop...
- shasta 16y agoReassuring to see that the UN doesn't predict any large discontinuities in that graph
- j_baker 16y agoThe last estimate I seem to find on the subject said that the population should level off at 10 billion in 2200. Granted, this is from 1999: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/sixbillion/sixbilpart1.pdf http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/sixbillion/six...
- ImperatorLunae 16y agoHumans do not necessarily reproduce exponentially. Hans Rosling's TED talks feature, as a central theme, that the population can stabilize at 9 billion with the right initiatives and social changes. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_g...
- alanh 16y agoMy post starts with "If". (I imagine the possibility of a singularity and the consequent interstellar expansions and/or virtual entities.)
- jules 16y agoAccording to world population on wikipedia it seems like more people live now than have died since year 1.
- jonathanbgood 16y agoI read that this is an urban myth and actually only a few percent of the people who have ever lived are alive today.
- jules 16y agoEver lived != lived since year 1. That said I just looked at the table on wikipedia and did some simple calculations. In any case even if more people died since year 1 than are alive today, not many more died. If you take ALL deaths, that does greatly outnumber the people alive today.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- docgnome 16y agoReminded me of this XKCD http://xkcd.com/686/ http://xkcd.com/686/ Which just made me sad.
- brianwillis 16y agoThe alt-text lightens the mood a bit though.
- thret 16y agoIt reminded me of this Dinosaur Comic http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1490 http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1490 Which cheered me up. Perhaps you're not really gone if you find a way to convince people that you are still alive?
- ubernostrum 16y agoA friend of mine died (young -- early 30s) this year. For a while, until his computers were taken care of, he was still "online" through various IM services, which was creepy. A certain IRC network has also, apparently, made an exception to its policy on expiring registered nicks -- nine months later, his is still registered and protected. Which is a nice gesture.
- jluxenberg 16y agoHad never heard of 1000memories. Interesting idea, but how can they really promise to be around "forever?" Does anyone know how they plan to make money on their "free" service?
- adrianwaj 16y agoI recently came across some YT channels of high-altitude climbers who'd deceased in their endeavors, with their last videos remaining. http://www.youtube.com/user/karlunterkircher http://www.youtube.com/user/karlunterkircher http://www.youtube.com/user/FredrikEricsson http://www.youtube.com/user/FredrikEricsson http://vimeo.com/joepuryear/videos http://vimeo.com/joepuryear/videos Creepy. There'd be an opportunity for digital wills, so a next of kin can claim passwords for ghosted accounts. Maybe some type of program that various sites can adopt, and users just register their account names with the program's hub site.
- southpolesteve 16y agocheck out some friends of mine at www.entrustet.com They are doing exactly what you describe
- cosmicray 16y agoThis seems like a (morbid) opportunity. An AI to keep these people posting on each other walls. I'm reminded of a short story by Larry Niven... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defenseless_Dead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defenseless_Dead
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- alain94040 16y agoYou could actually build a startup for that: when you die, our product will post updates on your facebook page. It's up to you, from the afterlife, to focus enough so our software can catch your brain waves. If enough people believe in supernatural stuff, you could make a killing :-)
- jaaron 16y agoThe Facebook wall for one of my passed away friends is regularly populated with notes and shared memories by those who knew him.
- purp 16y agoSame here. I got two FB firsts this year: first death of a friend I learned of via FB (I've had another since), and first "update" from a dead friend who's mother now controls his account.
- larrywright 16y agoI have a friend who passed away earlier this year. I found out on Facebook, as there was a sudden influx of people commenting on his wall about his passing. 8 months later, the account is still active. Facebook will occasionally tell me that I should reconnect with him, which frankly is a bit creepy. The worst part, however, is that his mom still posts messages on his wall as if he can read them. I find this equal parts creepy and sad.
- msluyter 16y ago
- southpolesteve 16y agoThe guys at www.entrustet.com have been talking about this for the last 6 months. Some of 1000 memories points are straight up lifted. Have some integrity guys. The interwebs know when you copy. Stats are free, but you should at least credit them for inspiration.
- smackfu 16y agoIsn't the moral of Hacker News that the ideas don't matter that much, only the execution?
- southpolesteve 16y agoTaking someones idea for a business and plagiarism are very different things
- kul 16y agoDo they really have to be called 'ghosts'?
- topbanana 16y agoYes, sorry.
- brc 16y agoI know of at least one, and it's annoying when Facebook does that 'hey, you haven't talked to this person in a while, write them a message' thing. There needs to be a way for the deceased to have accounts either deactivated or taken out of regular circulation.
- aquadoctorbob 16y agohttp://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=deceased http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=deceased