livesafter

Livesafter is a term used in digital culture and philosophy to describe the persistence of a person’s presence or identity after physical death. The term is not tied to a single standard definition and appears across academic, artistic, and online discourse.

Etymology and usage: The neologism combines “live” with “after” to signal continuity of presence. It is used to discuss technologies and practices that preserve or simulate a person’s life through data, media, or artificial representations. The exact meaning of livesafter varies by context, ranging from memorial practices to speculative technology debates.

Concept and scope: In discussions of digital legacy, livesafter covers topics such as posthumous data rights, consent for continued use of a deceased person’s online content, and ethical considerations of AI-generated personas, virtual avatars, or deepfakes intended to resemble a real person. It also appears in debates about how memory is shaped and managed in late modern information ecosystems.

In culture and media: The concept appears in essays, speculative fiction, and art projects that imagine or critique the persistence of self beyond death and that examine the limits and implications of technologically mediated presence.

See also: digital legacy, posthumous AI, digital immortality, memorialization, data rights.