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A High-Tech Ghost Story

Interesting article from a student in one of my classes - located here.

LIANNE GEORGE

ONE NOVEMBER DAY in 2002, Jim Sulkers, a 53-year-old retired municipal worker from Winnipeg, climbed into bed, pulled the covers up, and died. Over the next 20-odd months, the U.S. invaded Iraq, Janet Jackson exposed herself at the Super Bowl, and Canadians -- with some reluctance -- elected Paul Martin. But, tragically, it wasn't until Aug. 25, 2004, toward the end of the Athens Summer Olympics, that somebody finally thought to look in on Jim Sulkers.

By the time police -- alerted, finally, by concerned relatives -- climbed through the window of his second-storey condo in the posh River Heights neighbourhood, Sulkers' body was in a mummified state. Everything else in his tidy one-bedroom apartment was intact, although the food in his fridge was spoiled and his wall calendar was two years out of date.

After a brief investigation in which Manitoba's chief medical examiner determined he'd died of natural causes, the bizarre confluence of coincidences that led to his delayed discovery began to emerge (and landed Sulkers' story on "wacky news of the world" websites from Houston to Cape Town). For one thing, he was a reclusive man. He was estranged from his family and had minimal contact with neighbours, most of whom assumed he'd taken an extended vacation. Also, he suffered from a medical condition that prevented his body from decomposing -- and therefore expelling any telltale odours.

But the primary factor in the delay, it turns out, was technology -- or more specifically, automated banking. Sulkers suffered from multiple sclerosis and received a monthly disability pension, which was deposited directly into his bank account. His condo fees, utilities and other expenses were then deducted automatically. As such, his bills were routinely being paid up well beyond his death. Why wouldn't his creditors assume he was alive?

Sad as it is, Sulkers' tale illuminates a chilling fact: that new technologies like electronic banking have created a system in which it's possible to become so physically disengaged from the day-to-day administration of your own affairs that your life can effectively go on without you, perhaps indefinitely. "For many practical purposes, this man was virtually alive throughout that time," says Terence Moran, professor of Media Ecology at New York University, a program he co-founded with Neil Postman, the celebrated media critic, in 1971. Marshall McLuhan famously said that media are extensions of ourselves, Moran points out. "This man's life was extended for two years by the technology he used. Postman would've said that what you have here is a lack of community."

go read the rest of the article here.

posted by Netwoman @ 8:56 PM