Good Death
<p>Good Death looks at the end-of-life process for <i>worlds</i>. Worlds are what grows on a protocol when a protocol lives, though they can grow on other substrates, including games, social media platforms, and other communal spaces. The core thesis of this essay is that the death of a world is a decision-making process with a duration, rather than an atomic event, and that a clearer understanding of mortality in a protocological context can improve archiving processes and memorialization. By considering their death, we can better understand what constitutes the <i>life</i> of these worlds. Looking at examples ranging from eulogies spoken over dead video games, to the effects of automatically-deleted posts on 4chan, to the history of how human death was diagnosed, we will ask in particular what a good death looks like in decentralized world contexts, such as blockchains and DAOs.</p> <p>The essay is accompanied by a taxonomy of possible protocol-deaths and a series of proposals for how to kill worlds, entitled <i>Founding Memorabilia from the Order of Protocological Death.</i></p>
Authors: Sarah Friend
Part of: Summer of Protocols
ISBN: 9781962872485