This is possible because the website is made of .html and other multi-media files in directories. There are no moving parts. As long as there's a webserver it's immortal and probably the closest any of those in Heavens Gate will get to the concept.

We really need more websites that are .html and files in directories. Making everything an executable (either server or client side) leads to very short lifetimes.

> I asked the the admins if they resented this task at all: being left behind to play caretaker to a forgotten corner of the internet, missing their chance to “evolve” to this Next Level. They told me they weren’t resentful at all.

> “We didn’t have any of those feelings. That would be a very human response,” they wrote. “Don’t worry, we will be taken care of.”

At the end of the article the realization hit me that it's just standard cultist behavior: if they suddenly gave up the faith they'd be unmoored, not having anything to hope for, so it's more comforting to believe in the "lie".

Behavior that too many people in the world exhibit of course, suuure America will be great again, it's not racism, it's fighting against thugs! What grift? Oh all politicians do it, so it's fine if the ones I support do it!

[This paragraph redacted, sigh, triggering people's emotions won't get my message across]

One of my favourite YouTubers, Matt Orchard, did a video on cults that included Heaven's Gate. He interviews a surviving member. If this article interested you, it's worth a watch (the beginning is a bit silly):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9F-vb7s3DE

> The members of Heaven’s Gate, which had existed since the 70s, believed they were exiting their Earthly bodies to board a UFO that was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet as it made its closest approach to Earth.

So for all we know they succeeded in transcending their earthly bodies, and are now enjoying a more enlightened existence on a higher plane. I hope so.

> The members of Heaven’s Gate, which had existed since the 70s, believed they were exiting their Earthly bodies to board a UFO that was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet as it made its closest approach to Earth.

Wait. Wasn't this kind of the plot of Lifeforce??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film)

I guess that’s the ultimate hit-by-a-bus problem…

One of my earliest jobs in tech required driving southward into Sunnyvale for a 5AM shift. Seeing Hale-Bopp each morning for weeks on that commute was amazing. All of the images I can find fail to capture the visible confirmation that we're all on a rock floating in a vast universe with myriad amazing things nearby.