What are the implications? No more lies? No more crime? Will there be social acceptance? Are there privacy concerns? Could a subpoena be ordered for a specific day and time in YOUR life?
Think this is a new concept? Think again.
"Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory."
This idea was published more than 60 years ago, at the end of World War II by Dr. Vannevar Bush in 1945. The Memex (memory extender) was to be built as a desk with various inputs and displays and further enhanced by a camera that the user would wear on his/her forehead to capture pictures when away. (1)
Fast forward to the mid 90's and MyLifeBits - a Microsoft research project described as a "lifetime storage of everything and the fulfillment of Dr. Bush's 1945 Memex vision". The experiment is described here:
Gordon Bell has captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally. He is now paperless, and is beginning to capture phone calls, IM transcripts, television, and radio. (2)
Storage capacity was one of the limiting factors until fairly recently. USA Today estimates you can fit 284 days worth of your life on a 1TB (one terabyte) hard drive, which cost less than $400 in late 2006. (3)
What would your life look like when viewed by others? How much would you edit? How would your relationships change? Scott Carlson writes about his experience with "lifelogging" his own life for two weeks and his family's and strangers reactions in an article for The Chronicle for Higher Education. (4)
What do you wish you could remember?
Whose memories would you like to be able to review?
How will you be remembered?
Whose memories would you like to be able to review?
How will you be remembered?
(1) "As We May Think" by Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1945 Atlantic Monthly
(2) MyLifeBits, a Microsoft research project
(3) "So How Much Memory do you Need to Document Your Life?" by Andrew Kantor, USA Today (February 2, 2007)
(4) "On the Record All the Time" by Scott Carlson, The Chronicle for Higher Education, February 9, 2007
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