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."

Comments

redundant

[cr@ckwhore]

Sounds kinda redudant to me ... isn't this what the new dept. of homeland security is going to do?

Re:redundant

[hunterellinger]

When I worked on a left-wing paper in the '70s, we used to say that we didn't mind the FBI spies and bugs, but we felt that they should at least be willing to provide us copies of the minutes of our staff meetings.

My car keys?

[anonymousman77]

Will it remember where I put my @#$!$ car keys?

Re:My car keys?

[netsharc]

Searched the web for my car keys.
Results 1 - 10 of about 651,000. Search took 0.37 seconds.

Which one is it?

may be a crazy idea

[geoff lane]

do you really want to commit everything to a nice simple, searchable, disc that can be used as evidence against you?

And I do what with it?

[Spazholio]

Ok, so I fork over my money, I've got this shiny new DVD with the sum total of my existance on it. Aside from being horribly depressing, so what? What can I do with it? Store it for safekeeping in case of a terrible car accident which leaves me without my memory? No problem! A quick hard reboot with disc inserted (yuck) and I'm better?

Seriously though, aside from being incredibly cool, what's the use of this thing? To pass on to relatives after you're gone? Nefarious use in our legal system? Coaster ("Don't put your drink on the table, use Aunt Jenny instead...")?

Re:And I do what with it?

[chrisos]

I could actually refute all the assertions my ex-wife used to make, where she used to say things like:

"But you said X on that Saturday night eight months ago"

(Where X was the last thing I would ever say/admit/believe.)

Be warned, women in high places will never alow this technology to be used by men, there is a potential for blokes in arguments to be proven right! ;)

But.

[AUsBandit]

What if I forget where I put the dvd?

What do you need a DVD for?

[Gheesh]

Since I have no life, mine could probably fit into a 3.5" floppy

Read the EULA

[Max Romantschuk]

I for one would read the licence agreement on such a thing really, really carefully...

Imagine... All the information submitted to the system becomes copyright of Organization X...

Or am I just being paranoid?

The lawyers will love this...

[Memetic]

How long after this becomes avaliable will the first supeona for full access be issued - for example in a divorce court, patent dispute antitrust case...

The most reliable one!

[krazyninja]

Taken from the article=> ....build a faithful memory on that most reliable of entities, the PC... .
Umm....Why do I feel that was one sarcastic comment in the article???

Re:project is called MyLifeBits

[Roofus]

project is called MyLifeBits

That's cool. I'm about to start my own project, called MyLifeBites. It'll be a focus group helping nerdy Slashdotters come to grips with the fact that there's nothing in their lives worth backing up.

Read the article before repeating the hype...

[Junta]

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...