Duty not to delete: towards the question of the rights of the digital person after death

Abstract

The article examines the concept and scope of a discipline called ‘digital thanatology’, which explores how death and dying continue in digital space, transcending physical life through data preservation, virtual memorials, chatbots, digital trace and remains storage systems. Digital thanatology prompts consideration of the long-term preservation of digital legacies after human death, as well as the ontological, legal, and ethical implications of managing digital remains. There are explored Augmented Eternity project of MIT, which aims to create digital avatars that can preserve a person’s identity after physical death and continue to interact with others. This technological possibility raises new philosophical questions about personal identity and the concept of digital immortality. The claim that the removal of digital remains can be interpreted as a second death is analyzed separately, as well as the moral obligations of the living to the digital legacy of the dead.