The Techy Grim Reaper

You are one day going to die. This should not come as a shock...unless you are a vampire. In that case, why would vampires concern themselves with such tiny blogs as this? Possible entertainment? Anywho, there are a lot of mobile applications and website applications that can give us reminders that we are mortal. Some of us need it more than others. A Chrome extension called Mori gives you a graphic representation of the weeks you have left, if you live to be 80 years. At Deathtimer.com, for instance, you can enter some basic personal data and receive the site’s prediction of the day you’ll die (based on life expectancy stats). What’s driving all this morbid innovation? In part, it’s merely the latest extension of a long-standing human fascination with mortality. But adding a veneer of data-driven precision to the familiar “make the most of the time you have” message indirectly links these tools to the more optimistic world of body-monitoring fitness trackers and life-quantifying productivity software.