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Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

posterity.life

21–30 of 93 posts

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#21
Talk about testing in production. You have to die first to see if this triggers, and if not -- your automation becomes the ultimate in legacy code.

Seriously, this is a very interesting idea. However, after losing both of my parents in the last 4 years, there's a sad but legitimate intermediate state between alive & well, and deceased. People lose their ability to function and make decisions on their own, might not be able to renew your service.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#23

Talk about testing in production. You have to die first to see if this triggers, and if not -- your automation becomes the ultimate in legacy code. Seriously, this is a very interesting idea. However, after losing both of my parents in the last 4 years, there's a sad but legitimate intermediate state between alive & well, and deceased. People lose their ability to function and make decisions on their own, might not b…

I’m sorry for your loss.

Your raise a very good point. Two things.

(1) Incapacitation is something on our radar, and we really care about getting it right;

(2) We put a lot of effort into making sharing and keeping people up to date as simple as possible, so they can reach out to us if there’s a problem.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#24
post #22

An answer I didn't see in the FAQ: why should someone rely on a tech startup to exist and function correctly after their death, for something important, usually decades later?

I tried to answer a similar question above.

Death may happen at anytime, and we provide coverage one year at a time. If we go out of business before, you have the time to make other arrangements.

PS: Will definitely add to the FAQ.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#26

Talk about testing in production. You have to die first to see if this triggers, and if not -- your automation becomes the ultimate in legacy code. Seriously, this is a very interesting idea. However, after losing both of my parents in the last 4 years, there's a sad but legitimate intermediate state between alive & well, and deceased. People lose their ability to function and make decisions on their own, might not b…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#27

This kind of product/service is launched every few years, but unless users hurry they find they typically outlive them. It would be very interesting to see a post-mortem of the various "schedule stuff to happen after you die" projects, at least one of which I believe was YC funded.

most of those I've seen have been shut down your other services after you die, which is really a subset of schedule things after you die.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#28

This is really interesting. The site is very beautiful! I'm curious: let's say I'm 30 years old. How can I be sure that 'posterity.life' will be around if I live a full and long life. A _lot_ can change in fifty years. This seems like an obvious concern and I don't see it covered in your FAQ. This is not hypothetical. There are many similar (not identical) services that are no more. See SafeBeyond for one such exampl…

I wonder if the whole site could be put in a trust with legal stipulations to maintain hosting funds. The trustees would be the management teams, then potentially a corporate trustee who could keep the lights on in the event of a permanent code freeze.

I think partnering with a forward thinking legal firm that specializes in estate planning would be a cool avenue to explore that further.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#29
post #11

This is really interesting. The site is very beautiful! I'm curious: let's say I'm 30 years old. How can I be sure that 'posterity.life' will be around if I live a full and long life. A _lot_ can change in fifty years. This seems like an obvious concern and I don't see it covered in your FAQ. This is not hypothetical. There are many similar (not identical) services that are no more. See SafeBeyond for one such exampl…

I see a market opening: a service to track and manage the afterlife of afterlife services.

This. Unless you are a mayfly, you are highly likely to outlive any new business. Simpler approach is to have an executor have a way to access a password manager to be able to identify and close out online services.

Re: Show HN: Posterity Automations – Get things done from the afterlife

#30
Excuse the harsh question, but how many people using this have actually died yet? As far as we know, you could just collect money and never trigger anything. It's also very hard to collect reviews for this service. I love the idea and I would like to have it, but I find it a hard sell to actually rely on it.
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