Thanatechnology
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Communication technology that can be used for death education, grief counseling, and thanatology research. uncommon
"Thanatechnology helps survivor(s) gain a sense of control in an experience that feels powerless (Moyer and Enck 89) and mitigates the potential of “second loss” (Bassett). Yet, while thanatechnology creates a curated digital afterlife that is relatively sustainable and can offer comfort to the bereaved, Debra Basset notes, “just as we are biologically mortal so we are digitally mortal: loss or deletion of data and the risk of contagion is a real threat to digital immortality, as digital erasure is a possibility.”"
Example
More examples"Thanatechnology helps survivor(s) gain a sense of control in an experience that feels powerless (Moyer and Enck 89) and mitigates the potential of “second loss” (Bassett). Yet, while thanatechnology creates a curated digital afterlife that is relatively sustainable and can offer comfort to the bereaved, Debra Basset notes, “just as we are biologically mortal so we are digitally mortal: loss or deletion of data and the risk of contagion is a real threat to digital immortality, as digital erasure is a possibility.”"
Etymology
From thana(to)- + technology.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.