Slashdot Mirror
Harvard Prof Says Computers Need to Forget
Jessamine writes "A Harvard professor argues that too much information is being retained by computers, and the machines need to learn how to forget things as humans always have. "If whatever we do can be held against us years later, if all our impulsive comments are preserved, they can easily be combined into a composite picture of ourselves," he writes in the paper. "Afraid how our words and actions may be perceived years later and taken out of context, the lack of forgetting may prompt us to speak less freely and openly." Will such massive databases make us all act like politicians? Is data retention creating a "panopticon"? These are questions that the good doctor raises."
I am really tempted to comment on this, but I'm worried that it will be archived and used against me later.
#!
At the moment, data is easy to create, but it is also easy to destroy, especially by accident. The constant churn in storage technologies and file formats ensures that anything which entropy does not destroy might become effectively unreadable in 10-20 years anyway. As it stands now, our digital short term memory lasts maybe decades without well considered, active maintenance.
Think about all digital photos that will certainly be gone in 50 years. (Not that this will be entirely a bad thing. The future probably doesn't want photos of people drinking beer while wearing pirate hats.)
It's not often I take time out from my high pressure and high profile work ( which I am currently excelling at, smashing all targets once again for the 12th consecutive year ) to comment on /. but I will make an exception in this case.
:-(
A lot of people have, quite rightly, highly praised my work for charity and the modest advances I have been able to bring to many areas of scientific endeavour and whilst I am obviously too modest to trumpet these achievments myself it would be nice if future employers or business partners were able to locate them on the web.
Employers especially can often be faced with seemingly excellent prospective employees only to find later on the full details of their sordid obsessions have been documented fully on the web for years. For myself, an excellent choice for almost any position you would want to fill, I welcome scrutiny on the web since I am confident this will simply highlight my excellent skills at driving projects forward and delivering truly innovative and groundbreaking solutions ( at a low low price ) not to mention my near legendary interpersonal and team building skills and a level of honesty which has in some quarters become a byword for "Solid Gold Standard".
Certainly it has been said that there is no finer employee than myself to truly add value to any business and that as a business partner I cannot be beaten.
It's just tragic that the network appears to be moving ahead of the scientists at this point and appears to be in the throes of some sort of dementia with regards to information about me. I think it's mistaken me for someone else
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Give us a couple of your credit card numbers, you phone number and current address.
...
We can clear that credit report up for you.
Damn, this will come back to haunt me...
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22940&ci d=2467504
;)
So how about it, Slashdot, lets start deleting old database entries.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
"Afraid how our words and actions may be perceived years later and taken out of context, the lack of forgetting may prompt us to speak less freely and openly"
I'm not worried about computers doing this - the same thing applies to my wife. <rimshot/>
(Note to prospective employer in 2041: The above is a joke. Please give me a job.)
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
"while my good friend senator brown has presented himself to you as a family friendly candidate, i am only trying to help the american public understand him better if he were to be elected come december rather than myself, by bringing to light some grave AIM chat scripts from june 2006..."
"When i was 14 years old"
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"william brown: 'a/s/l?'"
"alright, if my opponent insists on this kind of personal negativity i am only compelled to bring to the attention of the american public a log of eMule downloads for a certain ip address of 165.45.23.100 in april of 2002, does that ip sound familiar mr. gordon?"
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"moderator"
"'spanking nannies 3, the return of mistress oblivion'"
"moderator!"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I thought the good doctor was Doctor Who...
You're absolutely correct. ... I wonder if I can change my earlier comment ...
No, it's Beverly Crusher.
Well, Bill Gates knew this all the time. He even gave a rule of thumb to decide when there's too much data stored about you, so it is time to delete some of it: 640K ought to be enough for anybody.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Yet another overreaction to social change. It's different, it's scary because... it involves computers. The problem has existed ever since the first Egyptian wrote a love letter on papyrus.
Nothing new here. People will worry about it a bit every time a new problem breaks, then they'll forget and start committing imprudent things to electronic storage just as they always committed them to paper.
Why, very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Scandal in Bohemia deals with this very problem:
"Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and is now desirous of getting those letters back."
"Precisely so. But how--"
"Was there a secret marriage?"
"None."
"No legal papers or certificates?"
"None."
"Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is she to prove their authenticity?"
"There is the writing."
"Pooh, pooh! Forgery."
"My private note-paper."
"Stolen."
"My own seal."
"Imitated."
"My photograph."
"Bought."
"We were both in the photograph."
"Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an indiscretion."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Thankyou, your file has been updated.
Sure, he may be ignored now. But in 30 years maybe we'll dig up his article again and do something about it....
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
I'm still the guy who took 4 grams of mushrooms on a road trip from Austin to New Orleans...
...I'm still the guy who failed out of college 3 years later
...I'm still the guy who defaulted on some significant debts in my 20s
Yeah, I think we see enough of your "whole picture" rather clearly.
ITYM "That's what NTFS was designed for".
HTH
If you've never heard the graunching noise which a hard disc drive makes as the computer "forgets" your last week's work then you haven't been working with computers long.
The right to vanish??
Didn't you know that only ninjas have the right to vanish, and they are still required to leave behind an annoying smoke cloud that fills your sinuses in the process.
> played D&D and cried
> seduce the hottest girl in school
Non-sequitor! Error! Paradox encountered! Cannot reconcile! Daisy... daisy... give me your answer true...
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Improve at backgammon rapidly through addictive quickfire position quizzes: www.bgtrain.com
mod me funny