Unstable preservation: memorials in virtual environments

I argue that if we have a moral obligation to preserve memorials to the dead (Stokes, 2015, 2021), then we ought to do so stably. I introduce the concept of stable preservation to capture high-fidelity and respectful forms of memorial preservation. I consider the ontological status of virtual memorials and argue that while they are ontologically equivalent to non-virtual memorials, and therefore resisting them on ontological grounds is mistaken, we may be right to resist an endorsement of some virtual memorials which afford unstable forms of preservation, to the extent that a moral obligation to preserve is undermined by instability.