The voice of the dead.

[theworm[$]]

Talking Tombstones Bear a Message from the Grave

Robert Barrows, of Burlingame, California has filed a patent application for a video-equipped tombstone that will display a video message from grave's occupant.

"If his patent is granted, Barrows hopes that when people make out their will, they also leave a parting video with their lawyer," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

Ok. I suppose if I strain my brain, I can understand why some people might find this comforting, but, personally, I think its horrible.

[emeleel]

I read that yesterday. I can't imagine the headaches for the cemeteries - just dealing with regular grave markers and sometimes the mounted oil paintings are enough of a headache.

[thinkerlady[$]]

I am with you Wormie. I don't think I would like this.

[realtraveller]

I can see video messages left for loved ones. But not on the tombstone for any passing curiosity seeker or teenagers playing graveyard pranks to play with. Why do people want so much of what was once considered private displayed for strangers to see and hear?

[erik_kosberg]

The voice of the dead.

When I saw the thread title, I thought that it would be about voting in Chicago.

[murasaki]

I think I prefer cemeteries that are quiet. No need to introduce media.

[drmomentum[$]]

Why not just get some psychic to talk to you and tell you it's your dearly departed? They need the money anyway.

-JP

[poseidon]

I'm 100% sure that I wouldn't like this one bit. I think that Naomi hit one big nail on the head -- cemetaries should be places of quiet and peacefulness, not a bunch of chattering headstones.

This leads to the next issue -- who is going to limit what is said on the "talking headstone?" I'd be mighty unhappy if I'm trying to visit a loved one's grave and the grave next to it (or twenty graves down or whatever) is chattering and interrupting. And, forgetting just the unpleasantness of the broken silence, what if the headstone is broadcasting something that is offensive?

If you need to hear/see a loved one after they've passed on, have their voice/image put on a DVD and play it at home to your heart's content.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I'd want it on my headstone, just so I could say smart-ass stuff like "Hey! Watch it! You're standing on my head!"

mj
who is, of course, JUST KIDDING

[slick4591[$]]

Or just people when they walk by.

[icicleie]

Originally posted by Poseidon
I'd be mighty unhappy if I'm trying to visit a loved one's grave and the grave next to it (or twenty graves down or whatever) is chattering and interrupting

Laughs...

Ok , let's get my breath back...I think it is an insane idea - not to mention eerie. It would certainly discourage all those people who have seances in graveyards - the dead would quite literally having something to say about it...

[emeleel]

Ooo, ooo, ooo! I have an idea! Let's make 'em with built-in motion detectors that only operate after dark. Then when the teens want to sneak into the cemetery to make out, drink, etc., the tombstones can start talking to them!

[erik_kosberg]

A couple who bickered through fifty years of marriage could be buried side by side and continue to argue.

I think that I better put more of Dead Like Me and Six Feet Under in my Netflix queue.

[mtbat]

I get a bit freaked out by the old pictures on the 1800's gravestones up in the mountains here in Colorado. I think I'd run screaming if a gravestone started talking to me.

There was a case on court tv a few years ago(yes I know I have deplorable taste in tv) where one family member sued her brother to make him STOP using their dead mother's voice on his ansering machine.

[eris esoteric]

emeleel said

Ooo, ooo, ooo! I have an idea! Let's make 'em with built-in motion detectors that only operate after dark. Then when the teens want to sneak into the cemetery to make out, drink, etc., the tombstones can start talking to them!

*starts practicing saying "Hey you kids! Get the hell out of my yard!!"*