The Gravekeeper’s Paradox: People want permanent tombstones that also show decay

http://nautil.us/issue/22/slow/the-gravekeepers-paradox

by dnetesn • 11 years ago

46 36 11 years ago

centizen• 11 years ago

I wonder if as 3D printing technology improves and spreads, will we see more plastic headstones by virtue of the fact they can be reasonably easily custom made? I could see people being attracted to the idea of a custom headstone at a lower price than the sculptor could provide.

pavel_lishin• 11 years ago

I like the idea of an eternal gravestone. The base is a very slow 3D printer, constantly extruding a headstone. The material ablates at a predictable rate, so the oldest bit - the top of the headstone - slowly crumbles away, while the bottom looks new and fresh.

You'd have to scroll whatever message on it - your name, birth and death dates, etc. - like a very slow marquee.

mFixman• 11 years ago

You'd only need infinite energy. Easy peasy.

Vektorweg• 11 years ago

My mother designed a tombstone using AutoCAD for my dead brother some years ago. Its already possible.

jcl• 11 years ago

If you just want a slab with an inscription, there's no need to 3D print it. Plastic (and metals!) are already easier to mill than stone.

shillster• 11 years ago

Cemeteries are beyond ridiculous, and growing up, I thought there would be a cultural shift away from such non-sense, but maybe not?

judk• 11 years ago

Cemeteries aren't ridiculous a priori, they just become less sensible as population density and community age (#of corpses) increases.

mhurron4• 11 years ago

Setting aside land for the dead is ridiculous.

ovulator• 11 years ago

There is a shift towards cremation in the US http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cremation_..., though seems to still be eschewed in the south. I don't know if there is any Baptist, or other religious teaching against cremation, or maybe it just has to do with cheaper land.

mhurron4• 11 years ago

Cremation in general has been frowned upon by christianity as pagan.

anigbrowl• 11 years ago

In Christian eschatology, one day Jesus will return and the dead will rise from their graves. For many people cremation seems incompatible with this, although one imagines a benevolent deity could just as easily reconstitute people from ashes, scattered or not. Then again a lot of religious people think this mass resurrection is going to be a pretty selective affair so that it's important to have the right address even after you're dead.

jewel• 11 years ago

48.2% of bodies in the US are cremated now, but it varies significantly by state. The NFDA predicts that it will be up to 70% by 2030.

http://nfda.org/about-funeral-service-/trends-and-statistics...

acheron2• 11 years ago

My grandparents were cremated, but then the ashes were buried in an old cemetery similar to the one in the article, with gravestones and all that. So "cremation" and "using land as a cemetery" aren't necessarily opposed.

GregBuchholz• 11 years ago

And think of all the lost phosphorous, for Ford's sake.

acheron2• 11 years ago

It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people. - Chairman Yang, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri

Houshalter• 11 years ago

My mother is into local history. She would often take me to cemeteries and show me several generations of family members. She told me many stories about them, even though they are long since dead. She knew where all sorts of notable people were buried, and told me stories about them. The graves of the first settlers, a soldier who received the medal of honor in the civil war in the locomotive chase, to a tombstone that was carved out of a meteorite.

We spent time planting flowers and keeping the graves nice. Cemeteries are not empty places, there is always someone showing up to visit and mourn for the dead.

It's also not wasted land. Every cemetery I've been to was built on land no one wanted. Usually sandy hills that weren't farmable.

If and when she dies there is no way I will have her cremated. I hope my great grandchildren tell stories about her in a hundred years.

speeder• 11 years ago

I like the idea of cemeteries.

When my grandma died, I had a blast not only looking at all the art (that is usually very interesting by itself), but also visiting my grandpa grave.

The grandpa died when my dad was 6 years old, so I never met him, he was historically important, not just to my family, but to his city, and visiting his grave was nice, people started to remember stuff and talk about him, and I could learn a lot, also could see how he looked like (his grave had a photo of him).

Despite never meeting him, I can now use him as a life example to follow.

jessriedel• 11 years ago

If they can solve this problem with distressed jeans, they can solve it with tombstones.

The Gravekeeper’s Paradox: People want permanent tombstones that also show decay

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