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Digital 'immortality' is coming and we're not ready for it
Artificial Intelligence has come a long way, but it might not quite be ready to give us immortality, even digitally. And that's probably a good thing.
Lil Bub, the internet’s favorite smooshed-face cat, has died
If you needed any more evidence that we are in fact living in the worst possible timeline, here it is: Lil Bub, one of the world's favorite internet-famous cats, has died. Her human dad, Mike Bridavsky, shared the news on Monday.
Twitter won't touch inactive accounts until it can offer memorials
Twitter is putting the brakes on its plan to remove inactive accounts. After hints that it was considering ways to memorialize deceased users, the social network has announced that it won't remove any unused accounts until it has a way to commemorate the dead. It also said that the eventual cull will only affect the European Union "for now" due to GDPR and other privacy regulations.
Morbidly charming puzzle game 'Felix the Reaper' lands October 17th
Felix the Reaper is a tragic, comedic love story that plays out in the bureaucratic cubicles of the underworld, and it's coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC on October 17th. It stars Felix, a marshmallowy dancer on a mission to attract the attention of his crush, Betty The Maiden. The problem is, Felix works at the Ministry of Death, and Betty works at the Ministry of Life. So, Felix has to sneak his way into her heart by taking a job in the field as a reaper, ensuring the deaths of all the humans on his list. He causes their demise one by one, dancing through the shadows of various, grid-lined maps, solving spatial and physics puzzles along the way.
Grumpy Cat dies at the age of seven
Grumpy Cat, the adorably grouchy-looking meme machine kitty, has passed away. The family of the dearly departed cat said she suffered complications from a urinary tract infection. She died on Tuesday at the age of seven.
Facebook's Tributes tab collects memories of people who've died
Facebook is rolling out several updates for memorialized accounts, which are profiles that remain active for people who have passed away. A dedicated tributes tab will let friends and family share stories and memories of their loved one, allowing the late person's timeline to stay as it was before they passed away.
Early internet pioneer Larry Roberts dies at 81
The internet has lost one of its early architects. Larry Roberts, best known as the program manager for ARPAnet (the internet's precursor), died on December 26th at the age of 81. While he wasn't as much of a public representative for the internet as people like Tim Berners-Lee or Vint Cerf, he made key decisions that would dictate how the internet behaved.
‘Altered Carbon,’ Netflix’s answer to ‘Blade Runner,’ debuts in February
Looking for something to sate your Blade Runner appetite until this year's 2049 hits Blu-ray? Then take a look at the first trailer for Netflix's upcoming sci-fi serial Altered Carbon. The quick look has it all: grimy retro-futuristic flying cars, lots of rain, at least one trench coat and a neon-drenched market scene. As far as actual story goes, the series is based on Richard K. Morgan's books of the same name and follows protagonist Takeshi Kovacs as he investigates a murder. The twist? Human consciousness has been digitized and Kovacs was dead for a few centuries prior to being resurrected to take the case. Yeah.
Unsent text message accepted as valid will by Australian court
An unsent text has been accepted as an official will by a court in Queensland, Australia. The message, found in the drafts folder of a deceased man's phone, indicated he wanted all his possessions to go to his brother and nephew, instead of his wife and son. The 55-year-old composed the text before taking his own life in October 2016, reports ABC News.
AI can predict if you'll die soon by examining your organs
When not stealing blue collar jobs, robots are becoming Dr. House, diagnosing maladies like breast and skin cancer with aplomb. Scientists at the University of Adelaide have pushed it to a morbid new level, however, with an AI system that can tell if you're going to die. By analyzing CT scans from 48 patients, the deep learning algorithms could predict whether they'd die within five years with 69 percent accuracy -- "broadly similar" to scores from human diagnosticians, the paper says.
Watch as NASA lays John Glenn to rest on Thursday
Astronaut and four-term US senator from Ohio, John Glenn, will be buried at Arlington Cemetery tomorrow, April 6th at 9 AM ET. The ceremony will air live on NASA TV to honor the first American to orbit the earth. The US Marine Corps will also webcast the event on its Defense Video Imagery Distribution System.
Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case (updated)
Amazon's Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree murder for the death of Victor Collins next year.
Killing children in 'What Remains of Edith Finch'
Young Calvin Finch sits on a swing perched atop a steep seaside cliff while the afternoon sun warms the waves, grass and trees. Calvin's left leg is in a cast, but he easily swings his feet back and forth, pushing higher and higher over the cliffside. He wants to do a full circle on the swing set; he knows it's possible if he tries hard enough. Back and forth, back and forth. Cast kicking, he climbs higher, parallel to the ground and shooting back down, swinging his legs even harder. And then, with a final determined kick, he does it. Calvin flies around and around, branches of the tree above him scratching his face and body, leaves and twigs falling to the ground. Suddenly, on the last high-velocity rotation, Calvin lets go of the chains, and his body soars over the cliff, cast and all. For a moment, he flies above the water, toward the setting sun. And then, he's dead.
A Facebook bug killed off people before they were dead
Well, this is awkward. Facebook incorrectly flagged some people's profile pages with a message saying that the person was deceased. And it looks like the glitch was pretty widespread: even founder Mark Zuckerberg had apparently ceased to be. A banner at the top of his profile page read, "We hope people who love Mark will find comfort in the thing others share to remember and celebrate his life." A number of Engadget staffers had passed on as well; we weren't just pining.
Thousands pay tribute to famous Twitch gamer in live funeral
Philip Klemenov, a well-known pro gamer and livestreamer who went by "Phizzurp," had his life tragically cut short when he died in a car accident on October 2nd. However, his passing is also showing how the streaming community can unite in moments of loss. About 9,000 people watched Klemenov's funeral live on his Twitch channel on October 9th, offering tributes and condolences that they couldn't deliver in person.
Laptop pioneer John Ellenby dies
The PC industry has lost one of its quieter but more influential leaders: John Ellenby, the CEO of Grid Systems, died earlier this month at the age of 75 of yet to be determined causes. His company (particularly late designer William Moggridge) is widely credited with making the first commercially successful clamshell laptop, the Compass. The 1982-era machine was thick, had a tiny screen and was wildly expensive for the time at $8,150. However, it was a hit among companies and governments -- it was a relatively slick way of bringing computing (and even basic digital communication) with you at a time when the alternatives were barely-luggable desktops like the Kaypro or Osborne 1.
Biotech companies get permission to test brain death reversal
Brain death in humans is normally considered irreversible. Even if you keep the body running, those damaged brain cells just won't recover to the point where you get a fully functioning person again. However, that isn't stopping Dr. Himanshu Bansal and his partners at Bioquark and Revita Life Sciences. They recently received approval from American and Indian review boards to conduct a trial aimed at eventually reversing brain death in humans. The initial, months-long test will use multiple techniques to try and regenerate brains in 20 patients, including lasers, nerve stimulation and injections of both peptides as well as stem cells.
Life after death: How will you handle your digital legacy?
You're dead. It's the hypothetical scenario Megan Yip, an estate-planning attorney, gives her clients when they show up at her office in the Bay Area. She makes them think about what they would want to do with their belongings before asking them to create a catalog of everything they own. It's a standard step in the making of a last will. But Yip adds another layer to the process. She asks for a digital inventory that details their online existence.
The internet is making public grieving acceptable again
Grieving used to be a public affair, but it was gradually suppressed in the 20th century as psychology made those outward displays socially unacceptable. Death and loss were things you were supposed to deal with privately. Well, public mourning is back -- and you largely have the internet to thank for it. As The Atlantic notes, the deaths of David Bowie and other famous artists in recent months (including Alan Rickman, Glenn Frey and Scott Weiland) have shown that social networks are quickly becoming mainstays of the grieving process. Those profile pages, mentions and hashtags enable a sort of connected wake, a place where everyone can share their fond memories with fellow sympathizers.
Brits can now pass their Facebook profile on after they die
When a loved one passes away, their Facebook profile page can become an important place for friends and family to remember them by. The company already offers memorialized accounts, which shows the word "remembering" next to their name and stops anyone from logging in, but now it's going a step further with legacy contacts. The feature is rolling out in Europe today after its US debut in February, and allows users to choose a friend or relative to manage their account after they've died. Once activated, this person can write a post at the top of their timeline -- for instance, to share details about a memorial service -- respond to friend requests and update their profile and cover photos. Users can also give legacy accounts permission to download an archive of their profile, including photos and posts, for safe keeping should they wish for their account to be deleted.
