All the Ghosts in the Machine

In the timely new book, All the Ghosts in the Machine: The Digital Afterlife of Your Personal Data, Dr. Elaine Kasket – using expertise derived from over a decade of study and research and dozens of interviews – dives into this murky territory, exploring how our online lives are resulting in unintended consequences for the legacies we leave behind in the world. 

 “All the Ghosts in the Machine is a book about trust, privacy, ownership, memory, and power,” says Dr. Kasket. “You should have the right to author your own story, to shape your own legacy, and to make informed decisions about the digital afterlife of your data. But big tech’s agenda and our own ignorance about digital undermines those rights.”

Dr. Kasket uses mortality as a lens to illustrate just how much power big tech companies have over our lives, deaths and memories. Will the corporations that pull your strings when you’re alive end up determining how you’re remembered forever? Does the existence of the Internet get us closer to ‘forever’, or take it away? What interest do big technology companies have in our information after we’re gone, and how can we seize control and ownership of our digital assets back from Google, Facebook and Apple?

In All the Ghosts in the Machine, Dr. Kasket explains why now is such a critical moment to take our heads out of the sand. Taking you on a fascinating tour through the valley of the shadow of digital death, she notes that, in the process, it will transform how you think about your life and your legacy, in a time when our technologies are tantalizing us with fantasies of immortality.

BIO:

Elaine Kasket is a psychologist, speaker and writer who writes about the modern challenges to our privacy across the life span, from cradle to grave. Speaking about life, death, privacy rights and the power of big tech companies, Elaine appears frequently in the national and international media, on podcasts (The Practical Futurist, Prospect Podcast, Fiction Predictions), and at major festivals (Latitude, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh Science Festival, British Science Festival). All the Ghosts in the Machine is her first book for general audiences.

Elaine lives in East London with her husband, daughter, and a revolving cast of troublesome chickens. She is a reformed 'sharenter' and a passionate believer in our right to own our information and tell our own stories. She tells her personal stories on Medium.com and on stage for The Moth, Mortified, and Perfect Liars Club.

Author website: www.elainekasket.com

Twitter: @elainekasket

Medium: @elainekasket

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-kasket/