My Father’s Death in 7 Gigabytes | WIRED

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.