Digital Souls
A Philosophy of Online Death
1st Edition
Published on 14. January 2021
208 pages
978-1-350-13917-6 (ISBN)
Description
Social media is full of dead people. Nobody knows precisely how many Facebook profiles belong to dead users but in 2012 the figure was estimated at 30 million. What do we do with all these digital souls? Can we simply delete them, or do they have a right to persist? Philosophers have been almost entirely silent on the topic, despite their perennial focus on death as a unique dimension of human existence. Until now.
Drawing on ongoing philosophical debates, Digital Souls claims that the digital dead are objects that should be treated with loving regard and that we have a moral duty towards. Modern technology helps them to persist in various ways, while also making them vulnerable to new forms of exploitation and abuse. This provocative book explores a range of questions about the nature of death, identity, grief, the moral status of digital remains and the threat posed by AI-driven avatars of dead people. In the digital era, it seems we must all re-learn how to live with the dead.
Drawing on ongoing philosophical debates, Digital Souls claims that the digital dead are objects that should be treated with loving regard and that we have a moral duty towards. Modern technology helps them to persist in various ways, while also making them vulnerable to new forms of exploitation and abuse. This provocative book explores a range of questions about the nature of death, identity, grief, the moral status of digital remains and the threat posed by AI-driven avatars of dead people. In the digital era, it seems we must all re-learn how to live with the dead.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
ISBN-13
978-1-350-13917-6 (9781350139176)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2021
Bloomsbury Academic
€30.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Patrick Stokes is a senior lecturer in Philosophy at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Naked Self: Kierkegaard and Personal Identity (2015) and Kierkegaard's Mirrors: Interest, Self, and Moral Vision (2010) and his current research interests include Kierkegaard, personal identity, the philosophy of death, moral progress, the ethics of conspiracy theory and the work of K.E. Løgstrup.
Content
Introduction
1. Dying Online
2. #TheWorkOfMourning
3. Kicking the Virtual Dust
4. Ghosts in the Machine
5. Deletion as Second Death
6. When the Dead Talk Back
7. "To be dead is to be a prey for the living"
Index
1. Dying Online
2. #TheWorkOfMourning
3. Kicking the Virtual Dust
4. Ghosts in the Machine
5. Deletion as Second Death
6. When the Dead Talk Back
7. "To be dead is to be a prey for the living"
Index
