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Poster:	Alison OK	Date:	May 23, 2019 2:54pm
Forum:	news	Subject:	The London Free Press: Will there be a virtual afterlife? The race is on to save our digital selves from oblivion

Alfred Nobel may be best known as the founder of the Nobel Prize, but he also invented dynamite. When his brother died in 1888, newspapers accidentally wrote obituaries for Alfred, blasting him for making his fortune from death and destruction. One headline even read “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” It’s believed he was so shaken by reading these opinions and facing his not-so-glamorous legacy that he donated his fortune to the creation of the Nobel Prize. His philanthropy didn’t change the fact he’d invented dynamite, but it changed what he was remembered for.

How will you be remembered? How will Facebook? For better and for worse, some internet pioneers are now facing the less-than-edifying realities of their creations and are trying to fix them. The social media generation is only starting to see its own long-term impact. But is there time for this-generation app developers to consider legacy when racing to create the next big thing?

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