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Backup Your Life on a DVD
matt20 writes "I've often wondered what it would take to condense the essence of my life and put it in a searchable format. Well, it looks like that may become a reality. Engineers are working on software to load every photo you take, every letter you write - in fact your every memory and experience - into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything. Here is the article found in New Scientist."
do you really want to commit everything to a nice simple, searchable, disc that can be used as evidence against you?
It is part of a curious venture dubbed the MyLifeBits project, in which engineers at Microsoft's Media Presence lab in San Francisco are aiming to build multimedia databases that chronicle people's life events and make them searchable.
Anyone want to take bets on how fast MyLifeBits will be selling off your personal info? True if you doubt Microsoft's dubious motivation and believe they're working for the greater good, this still brings a new meaning to 'single point of failure'.
--- What
Engineers are working on software to load every photo you take, every letter you write - in fact your every memory and experience - into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything.
I presume you must have to add stuff to this 'archive' manually? What happens if you forget? I know I probably would.
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Moderator's essentials
And with all my phone conversations in storage, it would only take one court order for some secret government anti-terrorist unit hell-bent on administering some starchambered justice on a mere hint of suspicion to go through all my calls.
Oh, when the Homeland Security Office kicks in they probably won't need even court orders anymore.
Just go through all the populace. We're bound to find a few terrorists in there.
Would it record reality or my distorted perception thereof?
OK, so they have some database, that can store various files and you can search it - AFTER you tag it.
And that's the problem: adding meaningful comments to all the little tidbits.
I have bought a digicam a little more than a year ago: I have taken approx 2000 pictures since that. I could put together some little scripts that search the JPEG's EXIF tags for comments but I can not be bothered to type it in. No way, that's not something I want to do. Easing/automatating this process is the thing that should be addressed (which is, I do realise, is far from trivial), but it's not dealt with.
Then I have all the emails I have ever sent or received (minus SPAM). Grepping it is something that is useful but it can be frustrating to remembering the exact words, then realizing that a synonym was used or there was a typo: so there is also space for improvement, but this project does not seems to address this problem.
So, to have the obligatory SP reference, this project seems to be supposed work like this:
1. Throw all the stuff you have into a database
2. ???
3. Have your whole life easily searchable
Real life is overrated.
You forget, the DMCA is enforced by the government. Good luck if it is the government you want to prevent from accessing it.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
The writeup makes you think they are sucking memories out of the brain and capturing them to disk. Simply not true. There is nothing at all revolutionary about what they are doing. They are basically designing a sort of journal or ultimate blog. Non-computer related experiences must be fed in and probably commented on (photos, etc). Some computer experiences may be captured automatically (this wasn't very clear, the article was more hype than substance), but nothing too difficult. The 'revolutionary' part they are claiming is the organization and search engine, and maybe some of the computer-auto-capture stuff (again, I can't tell if this is a claim or just an example..). This is not worthy of a Slashdot story, its just another blog...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Bell believes that for some people, especially those with memory problems, MyLifeBits will become a surrogate memory that is able to recall past experiences in a way not possible with the familiar but disparate records like photo albums and scrapbooks. "You'll begin to rely on it more and more," he believes.
Ok, Now everybody is going to forget everything. why should I remember when and how something important happened if I can see it in this private google again. And then somebody clever enough will change something and you gonna believe, cause you rely on this device more and more...
Not ? People already dont know how to multiply / divide large numbers in head. Cause everybody can use calculator.
I have said this before: there have long been records of the youngsters', particularly newborns', foot- and fingerprints. No shit, there was a movement to have even your elementary schoool kids as early as the 1980s in order to "protect your children" against kidnappers, molesters, etc. Now with this department the gov't would probably be able to access that at will, as well as any other database - let alone create a master database.
There will never be criminals in the US ever again. What a country!
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Why do so many people spend so much more time documenting their life than living it? Your memory will always be much more vivid (or at least emotionally charged) than anything recorded. You are going to slowly forget things, so just go do more things.
While I have no life to speak of, I have done some "really cool things" on occasion. I have a roll or two of film to cover them. Compare to my mother or sister, who come back from a weekend in Bakersfield with 5 rolls. Nobody wants to see your vacation photos, why would anyone want to see your life? I missed my sister's wedding because I was looking through a video camera instead of my eyes (I agreed to video it, so I can't really complain.)
The only people who would want this are those that keep every email and fast food receipt they ever got because they're just that anal. They need to lighten up anyway.
The description "surrogate brain that never forgets anything" strikes me as overblown. It's more a big personal library. It's not remembering anything, just storing and retrieving information in response to human input. Of course, I'm sure that the hyperbole isn't hurting news coverage of this project -- and probably helped the story make it into /.
It's paramount to silly.
...
"The motivation? Microsoft argues that our memories often deceive us: experiences get exaggerated, we muddle the timing of events and simply forget stuff. Much better, says the firm, to junk such unreliable interpretations and instead build a faithful memory on that most reliable of entities, the PC."
Yes, let's junk our minds and rely on computers instead! After all, we all know that computers are exactly like human brains only better! Haha, I will now power up and defeat you with my powerfull... hands!..
I have no idea why I just said that.
Likewise, I have no idea why this is inovative or impressive. People have been doing this for years.. with photos, diarys, letters and such. This, much as the artical says, is just a large database.
And frankly, I completely disagree with their premiss that having such accurate data on our past will give us a more true picture of what we were. We can only see the world through our own eyes, even if we have a perfect time line of what we *did* it still isn't likey to change how we'll think about our actions. We're still tainted by our own predjuices and momentary feelings and everything else, that relationship one had a year ago is still going to seem like a silly thing, and we're still going to say "oh, I wasn't really in love with her" even if we can see exactly what we did...
Besides, for the important things (well, what I consider important anyways, I'm sure as hell not going to suggest any of you need believe what I do) there's somthing to be said for just a memory. Sometimes a remembered smile between friends during a metor shower is more special than a video tape of the whole night.