JUN
30
Botanical Drawing
How We Disappear: Information in Life and in Death
July 9, 2026 at Local Economy in Oakland, CA
Local Economy, Oakland, California
When Stanford historian Thomas Mullaney “lost” both his parents, he began thinking of how information—all the stuff that makes us, that we make, and that we leave behind—ultimately disappears. The information that makes up our lives, from mundane official documents, poignant family photos, and sentimental artifacts to the cues embodied in our genes, both defines us, and inevitably decays, no matter the medium. Everything that we put “in formation” eventually collapses into randomness. Never is this more evident than in the wake of a parent’s death. Yet from all these elusive, even evanescent, data points, history is written and a future is made. Mullaney's new book about these ideas is called How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information.
He'll be joined in conversation by Tamara Kneese, whose 2023 book Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond provides an ethnographic and historical account of the internet of death.
Kneese is now a Senior Research Scientist at Partnership on AI. Previously, she led Data & Society Research Institute’s Climate, Technology, and Justice program and Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab.
Date:
July 9, 2026
Time:
6:00 PM
7:30 PM
Event website: https://luma.com/o8ar0rxe
Event type:
Science and Technology
Originally posted to:
Rockridge District Association Events Calendar
Published: Jun 26, 2026 3:41 PM
Local Economy is a small, flexible community space on the College Avenue stretch of Rockridge, a few doors from East Bay Booksellers. It looks and feels like a bright neighborhood storefront set up for people to gather rather than a traditional venue. Inside, most things are organized around a long central table where talks, workshops, book clubs and game sessions all happen in close quarters. more...
