My Father’s Death in 7 Gigabytes | WIRED:
My father’s last decade was one of relentless downsizing, from apartment to assisted living to nursing home, shedding belongings, throwing away clothes and furniture. And at the end: Two boxes and a tiny green urn. The ultimate zip file. After I parsed and processed and batched his digital legacy, it came to 7,382 files and around 7 gigabytes.
In closing, he says:
My father needed a great deal of space, but now he takes up almost none. Almost. Death is a lossy process, but something always remains.
I’ll read anything Paul Ford writes. I’m also an early member of tilde.club.