Many aspects of our life will be different in the future. Our cars will be able to fly. Perhaps we will live on Mars. Perhaps we will revive extinct species. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Well, for some it may be, but we all will eventually die. This cannot be changed (probably). However, in the future there will be interesting ways to diversify the process of your own funeral. After all, a person's last wish is law. And after death there is nothing interesting. Your body sinks three meters underground in a wooden coffin, decomposes and becomes food for microorganisms. Only a handful of bones remain.
How can you decorate this unenviable fate? Let's take a look at futuristic and exotic funeral options.
Go to space after death
Launching cremated remains into space is an increasingly popular trend in the United States. Mesoloft, a company that specializes in launching human remains to an altitude of about 24,084 meters (80,000 feet) using balloons, is one of the many businesses that invite you to travel to the sky after death. But why?
Alex Clements of Melosoft simply replies, "I think people are tired of stacking themselves in a wooden box in the ground."
Once at 24,384 meters - still far from real space, which starts at 100,000 meters - the Arduino-controlled robot releases your ashes into the atmosphere, recording a short video to show friends and family at the funeral.
Promotional video:
Retire to a futuristic Buddhist temple
Funeral agency services in Japan are extremely expensive. However, a futuristic cemetery called "Ruriden" at the Kukokuji Buddhist temple in Tokyo offers a more affordable option: a cabinet for cremated remains and a small illuminated Buddha statue (see image above). It's cooler than it sounds, believe me.
According to Motherboard, there are more than 2,000 of these statues in a row in the temple. Immediately behind them are the real remains of people. With the help of a system of smart cards, visitors can save information about their dear and loved ones who have passed away: the necessary statues will be lit up, welcoming their “relatives”.
How much is this venture worth? $ 6,600 per seat, plus $ 80 annual maintenance. Believe me, a traditional funeral in Japan costs much more - tens of thousands of dollars.
Turn your remains into diamonds
There is a reason they are sometimes called "blood diamonds" - a lot of blood is spilled in the process of mining, honing, selling, cutting, and gluing a shiny piece of gem to a piece of jewelry. But there are also alternatives. Moissanite, for example, is a man-made diamond that sparkles just as brightly. And now you (technically, your dead body) can shine like a diamond.
Exactly. Your cremated remains can be crushed into a diamond on an industrial machine.
According to LifeGem, which owns the only diamond manufacturing factory in the United States, the process involves heating extracted carbon from the remains to high temperatures and placing it under a special diamond press. Once cut and polished, initials or other identifiers can be carved into the diamond. Romance.
Continue living as a coral reef
If you prefer your remains to serve a more useful purpose - say, to protect fragile underwater ecosystems - they can be tied to a rifball. This ball mimics reef material and allows marine life to cling to it.
These balls are developed by Eternal Reefs. She uses a special mix of concrete and combines it with your cremated remains. Once immersed in the ocean, a reef ball made of concrete and your body will attract marine life and provide another shelter from the hardships of fate.
Let the mushrooms consume your cold corpse
While it is unpleasant to watch (pardon the pun) how a decomposing body forms a natural environment with nutrients for others, these are the laws of nature. But if you pump your body with formaldehyde and use non-biodegradable materials in your clothes, this mixture will not disintegrate for tens, if not hundreds of years.
Artist Ja Rim Lee and CEO Ceoio have found a more Earth-friendly alternative to traditional Western burial. She invented the Infinity Burial Suit: a full-body suit that grows mushrooms that can digest nails, hair, and bones. The spores of these "eternal mushrooms" are introduced into the clothes of the corpse, which greatly accelerates the decomposition process.
Bury yourself on a floating island
If a suburban cemetery is too boring for you, consider moving to Hong Kong. Once there, you can be buried aboard the Floating Eternity, a sea graveyard that was created specifically to relieve Hong Kong's growing death toll.
Although not technically available to customers, the floating cemetery can hold the ashes of 370,000 people. The project is being handled by the architectural company BREAD, which has designed a circular walkway that allows you to see the cemetery from any angle.
Resurrect thanks to artificial intelligence
Okay, we have already discussed what to do with your physical body. But what about your consciousness? Uploading consciousness to the Web is still science fiction. But although it is impossible to resurrect consciousness yet, you can recreate your version, which will act (at least approximately) like you.
Companies like Sweden's Fenix Begraving are using ingenious AI algorithms to create interactive digital personalities based on the dead. As they say in Fenix, a creepy ethereal personality allows you to "hear a voice from the other world."
For now, a digital copy of a human can only mimic the reading of text by a deceased person, but Fenix hopes to expand functionality in the future. The algorithm itself is powered by social media, chatting, and even people's email.
Ilya Khel