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The Factoid
that guy writes "TIME Digital has a story about the Factoid, a next-generation "minimal PDA" being developed by Compaq. You carry it everywhere, and it remembers every fact you encounter. " I think that thing, along with the Itsy, is really realy cool. I'd even be willing to submit myself
to beta testing! Anyone care to speculate on what could happen if something like this ever became somewhat widespread?
Specifically, my Licq history files.. One is over a megabyte, a couple of others are over 100k.. And I'm a pretty passive ICQ user.
It's kind of interesting. If I want to find out if a friend of mine has seen the movie "The Matrix" and I think that we talked about it, then I can just do a "grep Matrix ~/.licq/xxxxxx.history" to find out. It's easier than writing a diary. bleah.
When it comes to broadcasting and receiving information, that's also already happening. IR and local wireless protocols are being standardized. Sun, Motorola, and 3com were demonstrating lots of little devices that would communicate with one another, exchanging that kind of information, and doing so in a vendor neutral, platform independent manner.
Other systems that exist in this space are IBM's Personal Area Network (PAN), various pens that record information and can read barcode, broches and other jewelry that exchange information among wearers (and alert their wearers to compatible interests), etc.
The Motorola pagers (2000x) was particularly impressive: in addition to a pager, it contained a Java VM, fast IR links, and could exchange objects and applets with pilots and desktops.
An obsessive desire to record one's own life, however, will probably not be the motivating factor (and has somewhat worrisome legal implications). But there are possible business uses.
The big issues with this are:
The "Factoid" seems like a variation on these themes. But as the PalmPilot has shown, the right variation on an existing theme at the right point in time can win big.
Consider me guilty (by association) of using a PDA to remember things I should. I use my Palm III (nicknamed "Erwin") to remember all my appointments and obligations, as I'm sure many of you out there do. Currently, it is also storing various bits and pieces of ideas I have from time to time.
End result? I can't remember even the next day's schedule. Memories? Sure, I have them. (And I can recall them easily.) But I have no sense of temporal "location" anymore. ("What day is it, anyway?")
How long until PDA's like this start collecting not only my schedule and the ideas I come up with on the spur of the moment, but also the encounters in a day (like the above-mentioned "Factoid") and perhaps even the quirks of personality? How long until I (or anyone) become dependent on it? (Will I refer to my Palm 2K to find out if I like to use parentheses? Perhaps on the basis of past usage?)
...And if we ever get widely-used PDA's that are wired for the Internet, there's also the possibility that the above-mentioned encounters will occur between devices, and not humans.
Yes, using a PDA has made my life a lot less stressful, as I haven't missed any appointments or events in the past few months, with minimal effort. ("Did I remember to pack Erwin? Yes? Good...") It is a bit more to carry, but I usually don't carry much else anyway. Doubtless, future devices will become much less obtrusive.
Intriguing, yes?
-W-
-W-
Is it all journey, or is there landfall?
--Ellison & van Vogt, 'The Human Operators'
Aside from the possible spam and privacy problems, if the use of such a device became widespread, peoples' natural memory capacity would only degrade further. We would be even more dependent on a technological device to replace our own brains' functions.
Also, will such a device really make our lives less stressful? It's just one more thing to tote around and protect along with our notebooks, PDAs, wallets, keys, etc. etc.
I'm certainly not anti-technology, but we should really consider what a world would be like with a lot of these new toys in it.
Why? 'Cos mine will run linux. And will do what I tell it to do. Like the rest of my computing hardware and technology. I use it to make my life better, but I'm (reasonably) certain I run it and not the other way around.
:) :)
... I guess not reallly any different than a PC-on-a-SIMM...
My Factoid:
-- Collects bizcards of everyone I ever met.
This means no more flipping thru the huge company stack'o'bizcard fun for the one I need. And yes, Mark, this means your frikkin' bizcard database (lovingly coded & entered by hand) is obsolete
-- Remembers what I did today
So I can check stuff off my list.
-- Can pick up important announcements
but since I filter it will only keep the ones i think are important. So my friends' factoids could tell mine what's being planned, but I can ignore the specials at WalMart.
-- Runs Linux
And crashes M$ Factoids, especially those that want marketing data from me
Those guys at WRL are just cool.
Remember. Your hardware can only screw you over if you let The Man tell it what to do. Which is why we tell it what to do ourselves.
Tho that would be an impressively minimal linux system
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"Now look in that big clustered computer and find the 1GHz Alpha 21264 that says `Badass Mutherfucker' on the heatsink. That's my badass mutherfucker."
--- Seen on a Valley bumper sticker
Possibly useful applications:
- Tourist spots, which dump a bit of information to you reminding you all about your visit
Pretty short list, but maybe my imagination just isn't moving very fast this early in the morning.Most likely uses (most of these were pointed out in previous articles)
Overall, this is doomed to failure unless people have some sort of filtering mechanism that isn't intrusive. This is sort of like the Usenet brought into the real world.
I read the internet for the articles.
First we get everyone used to collecting factoids and storing them in a remote though accessible location. There will follow a push to make everyones databases available, and trials, contract disputes, etc. will become little more than ceremonial as all the facts will be laid out for everyone to see.
The technology improves so that more data is collected until every experience is recorded to the ultimate detail. ("Mr Jones, you say that you did not cheat on your wife. And yet on May 21 at 11:03am, EST, you visited Joey's Happy House. At 11:15 Mary Juicy entered your personal space and at 11:26 there was a sharp rise in your heartbeat and hormonal output which would indicate an orgasm.")
The final and ultimate innovation will be the introduction of viable neural interfaces. Everything I do and feel is recorded and stored in a central location. Want to climb Mt. Everest, but you're paralyzed from the neck down? No problem, access the database for the life recording of someone who has and experience their climb. We'll see the whole world networked as one huge mind. The Collective. Learning will be a thing of the past as everyone will know everything. Genetically engineered people will be raised to be 'clusters', nothing more than computing power in limp lifeless bodies.
Privacy is dead, because everyone knows everything about you and you know everything about everyone else. Prejudice is dead, because how can you PREjudge someone when you know everything about them. Conflict and injustice are dead, because people will not be able to distance themselves from and redefine other people as sub-human. Is it heaven, or hell?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
It would then soon become mandatory. My boss would know how many times I went to the bathroom. The clerk at the supermarket would know if I'd been to the drug store beforehand. The police officer on the corner would know I'd walked kinda slow on my way to my car. etc.
Yeah this would be neat except for the fact that every step you take is gonna record another "fact" about how "You can make more money in your own home blah" and "Hot sex waiting for you at blah".
Its a neat concept but it would get abused by advertizers in no time at all.
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GIT d? s: a-- C++++ UL++++ P++ L+++ E- W++ N o-- K- w--- O- M+ V PS+ P
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
... Fact #N: That being wearing the green dress is a woman. Fact #N+1: That being not wearing the blue dress is a woman. Fact #N+2: That being not wearing the red dress is a woman. ... There is no way to keep track of EVERY fact. (This post is only part facetious, I really would like to know what "every fact" is supposed to mean)
So here I am, walking down the street. I see a woman in a green dress: Fact #1: That woman is wearing a green dress. Fact #2: That woman is not wearing a blue dress. Fact #3: That woman is not wearing a red dress. Fact #4: That woman is not wearing a purple dress.
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Put Hemos through English 101!
I first read about this thing about 18 months ago. They apparently have made no progress since then because the page is the same, word-for-word. Consider the problems: - who's sponsoring all these facts? Your "life log" is likely to consist of vending machines advertising their presence. - privacy, as they admit. - my goal in using information technology is to strain out data, not gather more of it (thank you junkbusters.org for getting rid of those annoying blockstackers ;) - suppose my office were over a corner with a broadcaster that's pumping millions of ads a minute? - I really can't imagine what I'd do with all the data. If I wanted a technology that would let me 'check in', I'd prefer something like Sun's Java ring or related tokens. It is interesting to note that we have proof of a human desire in this area, as we already build and buy "remembering" devices. Some example include: voice note recorders, cameras, camcorders, and written memos. All of those are devices that I can use, edit, and review in the field...not the same thing.
Advice: on VPS providers
well.. lawyers would love it...
US$0.02++
So this little device is always in "receive" mode. Always collecting little data packets from other factoids. Then when you get home you can browse all of the factoids of the day. Great. I can just see all of the factoids that I picked up today: "This really works! You too can make millions!" "Freds plumbing-555-1234" Groan. Maybe I should start developing a Factoid Spam Filter right now.
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What I would like to know is how many people that I have come in contact with, like in the last 10 years. How many people in the world have I had almost direct contact with? Plotting that data on a map would be very cool indeed. Seeing interdependancys, etc. Even like a elapsed playback of the last 10 years of your life on a map .. that would be powerfull.
If this were to be a sucess it would have to be DIRT cheap at first. Although it's cool I won't be paying a couple hundred dollars just so that I'm the only one in my town with one.
So if it has no interface, who's factoids will be beaming out all these lovely facts for you to receive? How will you tell it which kinds of facts you don't care about? Any system set up to screen out advertisers will soon be circumvented, I'm sure.
And these 'internet connected factoid servers,' how will your factoid know if it is legitimate or not? Sure, it uses encryption, but 'they' don't have to decrypt your facts to know where you were, and when.
Thanks, Big Brother, but no thanks.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
From a student's perspective, will they be forbidden on tests? What about memorizing things? Will this in the long term replace human brain long term memory?
"I'd be smart if I didn't let thinking get in the way."
Then you just go home, look at your database, and work out where they've taken your factoid :) After all, it'd still be transmitting it's data back to YOUR home. Hmm, it'd probably even tell you the address of the person who had it when they walked into their house..
The idea seems to be that you don't actually have input, but that external stations input for you.
Like if you went to the grocery store, and you passed by a display of cereal. The store has full Factoid support. This display says that Corn Flakes are on sale for $2.39 a box, with some silly coupon. Except you aren't there for the Corn Flakes. You need milk. So your factoid records this price for you, and your personal database files and prioritizes this data.
You get home, and realize that you need Corn Flakes. So your personal db spits out that info and you go to the store and buy Corn Flakes, knowing full well that you have that silly coupon for Corn Flakes.
This kind of scenario is exciting, at least for me. It seems to me to be an extension of the conscious mind. Stupid inane facts like this would just get filed and prioritized. And when I need them, instant recall.
Which would spawn a need for some _really_ smart crawlers.