‘Memento Mori’… Remember You Will Die: Memorializing the Dead in the Digital Age

The purpose of this study is to investigate contemporary memorialization techniques involving both material and digital objects and chart the ephemera of hauntological perpetuity that drive modern-day memorialization choices and practices. Situating these modern-day techniques within the lineage of historical practices for memorializing the dead, particularly in the context of technological advancement, I make that case that in eras of ‘emergent scientism’ (Lutz, 2011), curiosity over the meaning of life, death, and the ability to ‘see beyond the veil’ is piqued. Often resulting from this curiosity are calls to renegotiate the social order as it relates to our understanding of life and death (see: OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s recent call to restructure the social contract in light of advancements in artificial intelligence). Utilizing data gathered from the Digital Legacy Association’s 2014-2024 periodical Digital Death Surveys, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and a mixed-methods autoethnography, how and why we use material and digital memento mori, or objects of remembrance, in the twenty-first century will be revealed and attitudes towards emerging digital legacy management services and AI-based tools that promise an ‘end of death’ explored. Drawing from multiple canons including metaphysical philosophy, Romantic philosophy, communication, anthropology, and media studies, the macro goal of this research study is to understand how and to what end practices of modern-day memorialization illustrate an evolution in our cultural understanding of the human subject as well as our relationship to the social systems within which we live out the complexity of our social lives. Critically, from a twenty-first century perspective, liminal experiences connected to corporeal memento mori occur outside of networked environments, allowing the subject to renegotiate her relationship with the deceased on her own terms and sans influence from the recommender systems algorithmically leveraged by platforms and other mnemotechnological environments that steer our experiences (O’Connell et al., 2022). Understanding why we may choose one form or memorialization over another (if we do at all), may provide insight into our attitudes about emerging technology, particularly those related to the emergent Digital Afterlife Industry.