In 10 Years, Every Human Connected To the Internet Will Have a Timeline

Presto Vivace writes: O'Reilly Radar has an article about how ubiquitous tracking and collection of data will fundamentally change how we live. Quoting: "This timeline — beginning for newborns at Year Zero — will be so intrinsic to life that it will quickly be taken for granted. Those without a timeline will be at a huge disadvantage. Those with a good one will have the tricks of a modern mentalist: perfect recall, suggestions for how to curry favor, ease maintaining friendships and influencing strangers, unthinkably higher Dunbar numbers — now, every interaction has a history. This isn’t just about lifelogging health data, like your Fitbit or Jawbone. It isn’t about financial data, like Mint. It isn’t just your social graph or photo feed. It isn’t about commuting data like Waze or Maps. It’s about all of these, together, along with the tools and user interfaces and agents to make sense of it."

Comments

What do you mean 'in 10 years'?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is already the case - we don't have to wait ten years. Except to actually have access to our own timelines - right now they are under tight government/corporate security.

Re:What do you mean 'in 10 years'?

[ranton]

This story is about how this will fundamentally change the way we live (and government surveillance doesn't do that). The article mentions how a great deal of this data is already being collected and is somewhat accessible to the masses. But it contends that within 10 years a standard individual will have an instant connection to a very holistic view of this data.

The social contract will fundamentally change when this information becomes so easily accessible. Knowing a slightly abridged version of the life story of everyone who walks past you in the supermarket instantaneously. Having the cliff notes of the past few conversations you had with every friend / coworker as soon as you are about to talk with them again. The benefits and of course the privacy concerns are staggering. But I am among those who believe the benefits will be so great that people will gladly give up their privacy for them. Mostly out of ignorance of what they are actually giving up, but they will lose it all the same.

Re:What do you mean 'in 10 years'?

[facetube]

Pervasive government surveillance doesn't fundamentally change the way we live? Tell that to the people who now self-censor to avoid ending up on a no-travel list, the journalists whose families are repeatedly detained at border crossings on manufactured "terrorism" suspicion, the technology companies and countries who are increasingly avoiding doing business with anyone in United States, the software developers who repeatedly get their laptops and phones confiscated at US ports of entry, the international tourists who now refuse to even fly through the US on their way to somewhere else, and the giant hole in basic infrastructure funding that's instead going toward a full-take federal wiretap facility in Utah.

The social contract has already changed, and certainly not for the better.

Re:What do you mean 'in 10 years'?

[kheldan]

Never mind 'What do you mean 'in ten years'', how about 'not at all'? I am not a participant in ANY social media at this point, and even when I did I NEVER used my real name or even allowed people to post photographs of my face. When forced to use my real name, it's for things like purchases. There is no 'timeline' for me, nor would I allow such, and to sit there and say 'you can't avoid it' is extremely naive and defeatist. There still is such a thing as privacy -- you just have to fight for it.

Re:What do you mean 'in 10 years'?

[ColaMan]

I am not a participant in ANY social media at this point

You don't define slashdot as 'social media'?

But I know you live in the US. You're somewhere in your late 40's. And like to ride bikes. And train on said bikes a lot because you're on a road race team. And that's just the first page of your slashdot comments that I idly flicked through.

I suppose you could tell me that's all part of the plan and that you're actually a dog........

Bullshit

[tekrat]

In 10 years, half of humanity will have had enough of this bullshit and will have hacked their way to privacy, or have decided that the internet just isn't worth it, or will have adapted multiple identities so as to confuse others.

And I should know, as I am traditionally an early-adopter, and have taken all three paths myself. I am also currently at the point of thinking it's better to destroy the current internet and rebuild it -- but without all the bullshit.

Re:Bullshit

[jeffmeden]

In 10 years, half of humanity will have had enough of this bullshit and will have hacked their way to privacy, or have decided that the internet just isn't worth it, or will have adapted multiple identities so as to confuse others.

And I should know, as I am traditionally an early-adopter, and have taken all three paths myself. I am also currently at the point of thinking it's better to destroy the current internet and rebuild it -- but without all the bullshit.

The internet is certainly better off without the 50% which is complete bullshit. The problem is, at this point we have no idea which 50% that is.

Re:The Elephant Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

And because there will be so much information out there, the value placed on individual pieces of information will be that much lower. I mean, the bottom line is when you have access to all the information about everyone, no one really cares that much that you had a bad breakup in '09 or that your appendix burst back in '11. Because that kind of shit happens to everyone.

Re:The Elephant Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. As usual the article is written by a nitwit who doesn't know jack shit and just started to realize what Internet is.
After a couple of years the person will have a more realistic outlook on the technology. Unfortunately the eternal September ensures that another nitwit will write the same scare story again.

Re:The Elephant Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah right. What's really going to happen is that one time you shit your pants in grade 5 will be one of the most memorable things you ever did in your life. Flooding people with data doesn't make people treat it all as noise, it makes them treat most of it as noise except a few notable cases (good or bad). It will distill everyone's life down to a set of easily digestible factoids, and /dev/null the rest.

Fuck that.

AC because I shit my pants in grade 5.

Small Town, Small World

[tomhath]

A couple of generations ago this was also true for most people. In a small town everyone knew you, your family, and everything about you. It some places that's still true. You did (and do) have the option of moving away; but that meant you were starting out in a new place with no timeline.

That would be a nightmare.

[Anonymous Coward]

Knowing a slightly abridged version of the life story of everyone who walks past you in the supermarket instantaneously.

I have spent the last 20 years growing. I am not the very hostile and shy person I was years ago.

To have people bring up things from 20 years ago and use it to judge me now would be a nightmare. At least with people who have known me all these years, they have seen the changes and have mostly forgotten or let go my past behavior. But to have people who see my past without context and the long and hard work I have put into being a better person would ruin me.

Technology is increasingly removing our ability to make mistakes and move on with our lives. That is a hellish future.

Re:That would be a nightmare.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for that. I needed a good laugh.

Re:That would be a nightmare.

[mbone]

Ah, but doesn't everyone go through at least a mildly awkward adolescence? You'd see all their "crappy poetry written in blood' moments, too.

Yes, and what that means is that, while the youthful indiscretions of those favored by the system will be ignored, those of anyone who stands in the way of powerful interests will be used to persecute them.

Re:That would be a nightmare.

[William Baric]

I already know more about the life of Mark Zuckerburg than Mark Zuckerburg knows about my life, you silly man.

How stupid can people get?

[BarbaraHudson]

Anyone who believes this garbage deserves what they get. Time to go outside for a bit, people. Your virtual existence is not real, and if you think it defines who you are, you're as sick as the junkie who thinks the most important thing in their life is their next fix.

Already discussed via sci-fi

[smooth wombat]

The movie, In Time, touches on the subject of a timeline for a person. As Wikipedia relates, Harlan Ellison had already written a similar story as well as a few others.

Despite this, I can see people not appreciating or caring about a timeline. I know it's hard to believe but there are millions (billions?) of people who use the Net strictly for general communication and research rather than the be all and end all to life.

As we've seen with smart phones, more technology does not necessarily make our lives easier. People are becoming so addictive to being connected, of needing to see if their lives are validated through tweets and pictures, that this timeline may send some over the edge as they desperately search for something to make themselves seem like someone.

Re:Those without a timeline will be at an advantag

[meta-monkey]

I considered that, and have cut/am cutting off other forms of voluntarily information/thought exposure. But with /. there's no point. This has been my homepage for 15 years. I can't imagine how many reams of e-paper I've written on here in that time. I am absolutely easily doxxable, and anybody who's mining this site already knows everything I think. And you can't delete your accounts and posts. I'm already naked here, so there's no point being modest now.

Re:Those without a timeline will be at an advantag

[Enigma2175]

Seriously? Read a book. Watch the History Channel

Why, so I can learn about "Ancient Aliens"? Or learn about how items are priced when pawned? Or keep track of the doings of "Swamp People"? I support your idea (learn history!) but watching the History Channel is one of the worst ways to do that.

Re:Where do I opt out?

[William Baric]

In an Amish colony, everyone will know everything about you.

Re:The Elephant Internet

[Attila Dimedici]

No, it won't be the breakup with your ex-girlfriend from years ago that you will be judged on. You will be judged based on that STD that your timeline says you had ten years ago, as reported by a doctor you never saw (or even heard of). The problem isn't that deeds will never be forgotten (well, OK that will be a problem too). It is that deeds you never committed, but the database says you did, will never be forgotten.