This week I read a post about the death of the Boeing whistleblower, and how Boeing might have suicided him.

I don’t care about if the rumors are true or not, however someone mentioned in the comments that in such situations one should always have a Dead Man Switch.

For those who don’t know a Dead Man Switch is basically an action TBD in case you die, like leaking documents, send messages/emails, kill a server etc . . .

The concept tickled me a bit, and I decided I want to build a similar system for myself. No, I am not in danger but I would like to send last goodbyes to friends and family. I think it would be cool concept.

How would you go and build such service?

I thinking of using a VPS to do the actions because it would be running for a while before my debit card gets cancelled.

The thing that is bugging me out is the trigger, I will not put that responsibility onto someone that’s cheating, so it would have to be something which can reliably tell I am dead and has to run regularly.

Where is what I come up with :

  • Ask a country association through email if am I am dead.

  • Check if I haven’t logged out on my password manager in a week. If it’s even possible.

TLDR; Give me ideas on how to build a DEAD MAN SWITCH and what triggers should I use.

  • steventrouble@programming.dev
    53·
    8 months ago

    From low tech to high tech:

    • You could put a box in your closet that says “In case I die”
    • You could make a website with a password that your loved ones can log into to mark you as dead
    • You could use a physical device like a magtag, and when you push the button on it it resets a countdown timer that, when it goes off does the thing
    • You could scrape your email server and reset the timer whenever it sees a sent message
    • You could set up your phone to reset the timer every time you unlock it
    • You could set up facial recognition cameras that would reset the timer when they see you
    • You could use differential equations to predict the exact moment of your death and schedule messages to be sent after that
    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      8 months ago

      The phone one is a great idea, no?

      On iOS you can use shortcuts to hit a web hook and on Android I’m sure the options are endless.

      I have thought about this problem before and I like the phone idea.