Total Recall - C. Gordon Bell [72]
ADAPTATION STARTS NOW
Many of the changes coming are not just Total Recall issues, and they’re not just out in the future. People often query me about the security of my e-memories, and wonder whether I’ve created a treasure trove for hackers and identity thieves. They don’t seem to realize that their present, tiny, e-memories already contain everything an identity thief needs—and their physical recycling bin is an even more attractive target.
Regardless of law and custom it will become harder and harder to know for sure if you are being recorded, due to continued miniaturization. You might be recording me; I can’t be sure. And I will act just the same thinking you might record me as I would knowing for sure you will record me. Steve Mann demonstrates this in an experiment called MaybeCam. Steve and friends go out in bulky shirts with a dark Plexiglas panel in the front—similar to the domes that hide surveillance cameras—and printed with:
For your protection, a video record of you and your establishment may be transmitted and recorded at remote locations.
ALL CRIMINAL ACTS PROSECUTED!!!
Some of these MaybeCam shirts have cameras behind them, some do not. People react as if they are being recorded even if none of the shirts have cameras.
We will cross the threshold into living much of our lives with the possibility of being recorded long before lifelogging becomes mainstream. And there is already more than enough value in your present e-memory to warrant replication and backup. E-gossip is well under way; the Internet is already teeming with compromising home videos and photos. Were no further progress to take place toward Total Recall, the need to adapt in every area I’ve discussed is just as strong and urgent.
Life with Total Recall seems as alien to us now as the first automobiles must have felt to the horseback riders they roared past. But Total Recall, like the automobile, is rejected only at the price of giving up great advantages. The greatest failure of adaptation would be the failure to take advantage of the new technology. How sad it would be to lose memories or to fail to pass on a digital legacy. What a mistake to miss out on improved health, learning, productivity, or self-awareness. We need to adapt to reap the benefits.
CHAPTER 9
GETTING STARTED
A revolution is coming, sure enough, and all over the world people are gradually drifting toward it, recording and storing more and more of their lives. But what if you want to push ahead and experience more of the revolution sooner? You won’t have a research team to take you as far as I have gone, but you can still do quite a lot. You can begin your own Total Recall revolution right now. What follows in this chapter is a plan of action for getting the revolution started in your life, and maybe beyond.
This chapter is about getting started with what we have, even if we have to employ the occasional “hack.” I’ll mention a few products, but the technology is moving so quickly that I suggest paying attention to what these devices fundamentally accomplish, not their bells and whistles or brand names. And of course, check in on totalrecallbook.com for the latest updates on services and products that we think mark progress in the march to Total Recall.
STEP I: THE SETUP
Approach your e-memory with a plan and you will get better results. Decide which aspects of your life you want to be able to recall, from physical objects like bowling balls to born-digital items like e-mails and GPS locations.
As I described in Part One, when I started my own Total Recall project back in 1998, I had boxes of papers in storage, foldersful of paper in file drawers, and piles of papers all over my home and office. My shelves overflowed with books, LPs, CDs, VHS videotapes, and DVDs. My photographs