Eterna

Eterna is a speculative design project that imagines what it might be like to upload your consciousness to the cloud after you die. Framed as a digital service, Eterna looks and feels like something you might already use: friendly branding, smooth user experience, and language that sounds helpful and reassuring. But underneath that surface, the project invites deeper reflection on what it really means to give up control of your data, not just while you’re alive, but forever.

The idea started from thinking about how we’re already handing over parts of ourselves through digital platforms every day. Our memories, preferences, even our personalities are being captured in data. This led us to ask: what happens if that data becomes a version of “you” after death? Who owns it? Who controls it? Is it even you?

Inspired by texts like Homo Deus and conversations about digital ethics, Eterna is not about predicting the future, but about questioning the direction we’re already heading. The prototype presents this fictional service as something believable and desirable at first, then slowly reveals the fine print. It’s designed to make people stop and think about what we’re really agreeing to when we click “I accept.”

Rather than offering solutions, Eterna is meant to provoke reflection. It challenges how we see identity and agency in a digital world. The project uses humor and familiarity to open up a serious conversation about what it means to be human when technology becomes part of our legacy.