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By the end of this year,
截止今年年底，
there'll be nearly a billion people on this planet
这个星球上将有接近十亿人口
that actively use social networking sites.
在很活跃地使用社交网站。
The one thing that all of them have in common
他们有一个共同点，
is that they're going to die.
就是他们终将死去。
While that might be a somewhat morbid thought,
也许这是个有点病态的想法，
I think it has some really profound implications
但是我认为它有一些深远的意义
that are worth exploring.
值得探究。
What first got me thinking about this
第一次让我思考这个问题，
was a blog post authored earlier this year by Derek K. Miller,
是今年早些时期，戴瑞克·米勒发布的一个博客。
who was a science and technology journalist
他曾是一名科学和科技记者，
who died of cancer.
死于癌症。
And what Miller did was have his family and friends write a post
米勒让他的家人和朋友
that went out shortly after he died.
在他去世不久后写一个通知。
Here's what he wrote in starting that out.
这是他最初写的。
He said, "Here it is. I'm dead,
他说，“这个时刻还是到了。我已经死了，
and this is my last post to my blog.
这是我在博客上的最后一条信息
In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down
在此之前，我已恳请我的家人和朋友，
from the punishments of my cancer,
一旦我的身体因为癌症的折磨而停止运转，
then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote --
他们将发布这条我事先写好的信息－－
the first part of the process
这是把
of turning this from an active website to an archive."
一个活跃的网站转变成一种档案的第一部分。”
Now, while as a journalist,
现在，作为一名记者，
Miller's archive may have been better written
米勒的档案或许可以比其他人更好地被记录，
and more carefully curated than most,
更好地被展示，
the fact of the matter is that all of us today
事情的真相是今天我们所有的人
are creating an archive
都在创造一种档案，
that's something completely different
一种完全不同于
than anything that's been created
任何被前辈们
by any previous generation.
创造出的事物。
Consider a few stats for a moment.
请大家来看看这些数据。
Right now there are 48 hours of video
此时此刻，每分钟有48个小时的视频
being uploaded to YouTube every single minute.
正在被上传到Youtube上。
There are 200 million Tweets being posted every day.
每天，有2亿条的微博被发布。
And the average Facebook user
平均每个脸书用户每月
is creating 90 pieces of content each month.
产生90条的内容。
So when you think about your parents or your grandparents,
所以，当你回想你的父母或曾父母们时，
at best they may have created
他们至多制作了
some photos or home videos,
一些照片或家庭视频，
or a diary that lives in a box somewhere.
或者一本躺在某处箱子里的日记。
But today we're all creating this incredibly rich digital archive
但是今天，我们正在创造这个丰富到不可思议的数码档案，
that's going to live in the cloud indefinitely,
甚至在我们离开世界的若干年之后，
years after we're gone.
它们仍然可以在世界上永恒地存在。
And I think that's going to create some incredibly intriguing opportunities
我想，那将为技术专家创造很多有趣到难以置信的
for technologists.
机会。
Now to be clear, I'm a journalist and not a technologist,
我先声明，我是一个记者，而不是技术专家，
so what I'd like to do briefly
所以我主要想做的是
is paint a picture
描绘一幅画面，
of what the present and the future are going to look like.
一幅关于现在和未来将会怎样的画面。
Now we're already seeing some services
目前，我们已经看到一些服务，
that are designed to let us decide
它们被设定好以让我们决定
what happens to our online profile and our social media accounts
我们网上的个人主页和社交媒体的账户
after we die.
在我们去世之后会发生什么。
One of them actually, fittingly enough,
事实上，它们中的一个，很合时宜地，
found me when I checked into a deli
当我在纽约四方区的
at a restaurant in New York
一家餐馆买熟食的时候
on foursquare.
发现了我。
