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.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•9 months ago

    It’s the word lawyer. Please forgive me for having a tarnished view of the practice after a lifetime of reading about all the silly, frivolous litigation that constantly occurs in the US.

    I get what you’re saying though. I know there are good lawyers and a need for them.

    • @[email protected]
      1•9 months ago

      Many of the “frivolous” lawsuits you’ve actually heard about are effectively smear campaigns against the plaintiffs.

      The lawsuit against MacDonald’s for the hot coffee one is a great example.

      Yes, people do dumb stuff, or fantasize that a situation could be their golden ticket, but that is the cost of having a civil judicial system. You either have to allow some crazy in, or prejudge and filter out what you’d consider legitimate cases. I just don’t have the energy, or care enough to be annoyed by inefficiency in the a system that I rarely interact with.

      The criminal system is a different story, because the way we currently prosecute different kinds of crimes offends my basic sense of fairness.