Matthew Knott

People die all the time, it's no secret, but morbid curiosity is now easily satisfied with more and more people using facebook, twitter and the like. For some reason or other, death is something that I often think about, and having what may be called a bountiful online presence makes me wonder about what would happen if I were to die suddenly.

I wouldn't say I fear dying, but rather I worry about dying. Let me explain. I worry about my family, how will they cope, will Gareth Tickner try to move in on my missus (sorry Gar, there's a good chance you'd try and who know's what grief would do to someone). I worry about my funeral, who would come? Would it be a good turn out? Who would be sad, who would be meh, and who would be, heaven forbid, happy at my passing? 

Now I have a new worry, albeit a superficial one. What would my last words be online.

These thoughts have been boght about by several recent deaths in the Ammanford area. They were people I might have known or might have recognized so I went straight to their Facebook pages and was fascinated (albeit morbidly I know) by their last movements. I didn't feel sad, just curious. I guess you would compare to clearing out someone's house after they died, seeing the way they lived for the first time, finding out about them, their loves, interests and passions.

There's no accounting for dying unexpectedly, the clue is in the name, and I started wondering if I should start a web app for people to record their latest last wishes.

For example, right now, when I die, I wan't Gareth Tickner to have my X-Wing bobble head (not my wife please), infact he can have all my Star Wars gear. Everything xbox can go to Dem, and Tristun can have my iMac.

At my funeral, as the casket goes into the burner I want the music from the medal ceremony at the end of "A New Hope". I want Anthony Daniels, the little Thespian, reading my eulogy.  

Tonight, I came across a man who was given days to live, he was dying from cancer. His name is Michael Wilkey, a UX expert. I've never met him and know next to nothing about him yet he's was continuing to tweet updates about this and that as if nothings happening and I found that fascinating. Again, it forced me to wonder how I would live out my last 10 days. It's easy to hypothesize about such things when they aren't happening to me, but my initial thought was that I wouldn't waste a second on twitter... or would I.

Michael seemed to give a lot of his time to the UX community, and online interaction is probably a massive part of that for him. Why wouldn't he want to continue helping people a go out helping impart his knowledge onto others. I'm not really part of any community, online or otherwise, mainly because I have little to contribute to anything online, and lack the social skills or get up and go to do something in real life, but I wonder how that would change if my time on earth was more limited than it already is.

Imagine how insanely different the world would be if everyone knew when they would die.