Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
Great, so now the breakup of my ex-girlfriend from years is going to be used by others when judging my worth in relationships, or maybe health data. Or finance. Data is beautiful, but it can be really evil. Deeds will no longer be forgotten at some point; we'll be the sum of all of our decisions on the inside *and now* the outside for everyone to see.
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.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Those without a timeline will be at a huge advantage
There, fixed that for you. If influencing strangers is named as an advantage, I strongly disagree. Strangers more likely influence anyone with a publicly available profile. Remaining anonymous gets more important every day.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Does this mean that the follies of your youth become held against you for your entire life? Even if we were somehow shielded until we're 18, youthful mistakes don't stop then. There has been quite a bit of study now that important developments in the brain continue into the mid 20's. Heck, since we often accept anecdotal fiction as evidence around /., think of Scrooge. He had a life-changing event relatively late in life.
At one extreme, we freeze everyone into the patterns of their youth. At the other, "I've changed, I've learned since then," becomes a mantra that absolves all responsibility. The difference here is that in the real world, people know you, your speech and actions, and how they all change with time, so they're at least equipped to make a decent judgement, even if that doesn't always happen. In non-meat-space those things aren't necessarily true, especially as so much incoming information is filtered to confirm one's current world-view.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Those without a timeline will be at a huge disadvantage.
you told me the same thing about google plus, facebook, myspace, twitter, instagram, youtube, vine, secondlife, and tumblr. I seem to have suffered no loss in "advantage" though. Let me put it in your terms, maybe that will help. #GETOFFMYLAWN.
Good people go to bed earlier.
For now the big 3 credit reporting agencies can't even make a decent snapshot of what I *am* now, never mind any past history.
I am constantly surprised by incorrect addresses, wrong phones, misspelled names and other such junk (mostly because data entry clerks elsewhere can't be bothered to enter data right, or poorly designed "business systems" don't handle it properly).
My driver license from one state was not properly canceled, when I moved and obtained license in another - so for a while, unknowingly, I had two parallel driver licenses and separate records (even though presumably states share that information).
The only place where information about me seems to resemble anything like reality is my own linkedin profile, and that's because I care to keep it correct.
That's not to say there isn't a ton of information on each and every one of us, and the amount keeps growing. However, most of that information is of poor quality, and not organized - something I wouldn't expect to change anytime soon. The only danger I see is that new generation is conditioned to maintain their own timeline and do the information-cleaning job for the big corporations and government for free. So, let's wait and see, shall we.
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.
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.
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.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
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.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
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.
Enigma
In an Amish colony, everyone will know everything about you.