Today I read a story by the author Arno Schmidt in which the protagonist discovers that below ground in caves a netherworld exists in which the deceased dwell - but only those who have some written record of their existence left on earth. This includes writers and poets, but also everyone who had his or her name mentioned in some way in writing, including chronicles, almanachs, even maps or phonebooks.
Most of the deceased do not like the afterlife too much and would actually prefer to quit existence. When the last scrap on which a person's name was mentioned is destroyed (there is a huge bureaucratic institution which checks on all the names and written records on earth), a huge feast is held and the person can finally merge into nonexistence by descending some stairs which lead into nothingness.
While unimportant people without much written records by or of them only have to stay in the netherworld for a few years at most, famous writers, scientists or philosophers may have to stay for millenia, as their works are reproduced and read throughout history, books are written about them, they are mentioned in other writings and articles, etc.
(BTW this story was written in the 1960s, before the Pioneer spacecraft were launched. The people whose names are imprinted on the golden data records, designed to last for tens to hundreds of millenia until the probes come close to other stars, are so fucked...)
So, now I ask myself: How long would Chris have to stay in the netherworld? There is not much written about him on paper, but in the story it is mentioned that magnetic tape recordings count as "written record" so I think digital data storage would count too.
The CWCki, the Sonichu comics and the fairly large amount of general web content about CWC is, I think, mostly stored on large hard disk drives in servers. It is probably not yet known how long hard disk data stay put, I would think at least several decades, maybe centuries under optimum conditions. Some people probably copied data about Chris on CDs or flash drives, which may be more durable than hard disk drives. Also, some stuff likely got printed on paper - Chris himself created print editions of Sonichu to give away at Anime Mid-Atlantic. Paper is quite durable, but I don't know about printer ink.
Whether anything will be written about Chris after his death remains to be seen, but I still suspect that some weens might pool their money and create of CWCumentary film.
I'd give Chris about 100-200 years in the netherworld until the last scrap of paper, the last .jpg file with his infamous initials on it will have vanished. What do you think?
