Anil Dash’s vision of the personal panopticon strikes a chord with me. I care little for his fascination with capturing the audio of our lives, although I do think I need to get a few snippets of Benjamin’s funny comments now and again. But I find myself believing that events are not real, or easily memorable, unless I record something in digital form. Part of jotting down these notes (public, but not much of an audience) is to pin down specific thoughts in time. My memory is faulty and poorly trained. I’m very visually oriented (another way of saying I don’t listen very well). By opening up this conversation with myself, and eventually with others, I can note my passage through time by a metric other than my slower running times.
Back to the digital doppelganger… I always hoped that David Gelernter’s LifeStreams software would take root, because I love the concept of timestamping your life (sad?).
Thinking in video — which I rarely do — consider The Transparent Society David Brin brings to mind. He sees Big Brother, and advocates… go with the flow, and overwhelm the system, turning it to the advantage of individuals rather than just corporations and governments. I’m vastly oversimplifying, and perhaps misstating, since I’m relying on my memory of hearing him speak in early 2000. I have not read his book, nor his website, beyond grabbing this quote: “For the cameras are on their way, along with data networks that will send a myriad images flashing back and forth, faster than thought.” Seeing all the video cameras protesters carried during the recent anti-war protests here in San Francisco made it clear that Brin’s thinking is almost common knowledge/practice. All lots of video makes me think is… where are the editors?? (I want someone to save my time, and find the good stuff.)