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IBM Memory Aides

CuttingEdge100

CuttingEdge100

Commodore
Commodore
A press release from IBM explaining basically how the device works and their intention to market it on cellphones (probably in 2009):

- http://www.ibm.com/news/us/en/2008/07/29/x657352h71096o55.html


An MIT Overview which explains how it all works:

- http://web.media.mit.edu/~vemuri/wwit/wwit-overview.html


This could essentially be a very serious ethical and privacy issue. These devices record enormous amounts of data of all kinds, audio (even voice recognition -- read the MIT overview), pictures, GPS, and other things, and intelligently cluster the data very efficiently.

Considering our government has not been the most trustworthy with it's warrantless wiretapping and surveillance programs: We'd have no privacy left -- Especially if these devices became a ubiquitous part of every new cellphone under development!


CuttingEdge
 
This reminds me a rudimentary "cyber brain" from the Ghost in the Shell series, this one doesn't have a direct neural interface though because that tech is still experimental.


If this proves popular though, I'll bet real honest to goodness cyberbrains will not be too far away.
 
Some futurists looking at trends like MySpace and Facebook and the every increasing amount of computer storage predict that people will "life blog" within the next 5-10 years. When you could put video and sound data in hi definition for a thousand people on a memory card the size of a peanut, why not?

It's odd to think that our children and grandchildren may have a completely different view of privacy than we and our parents and grandparents did. I guess as long as people feel they can maintain their privacy when they chose to they are perfectly fine with putting their entire lives on display.

The practical applications would be something anyone would be interested in. Can't remember the conversation you had with so-in-so or the name of that song or movie? Just search your personal database. :)
 
Meredith,

I would not be surprised.

Truthfully I don't see how this technology is even necessary. Most people have a reasonably good memory to get by. The only exception is if they have dementia, but in that case the solution would be to try and development treatments or cures for the dementia. There's already a number of drugs that can slow down dementia, and drugs in testing that can stop it.

So really it's just not needed and will cause more problems than it's worth (gross privacy violations; not to mention some states have laws that make it illegal to record people's conversations or make videos of people without consent or a warrant)


FordSVT,

I don't know how a rational person with any common sense can not see something wrong with having all the details of their lives including their most intimate moments placed on the internet for all to see.


CuttingEdge100
 
Last edited:
^I'm pretty sure most people would turn it off in the shitter or at home much of the time, for example, but why would this surprise you? Look at all the people who'd love to be on a Big Brother type show and other reality TV outlets, who plaster hundreds of photographs and thought all over website for people to see.

Life blogging will probably be a trend of some kind at some point, even if it turns into a fad. Seems inevitable to me.

Technology is going to pervade every nook and cranny of our existence in the not so distant future. The only thing worse than letting it happen naturally would be to legislate against it. I don't desire to live in a culture that turns against technological and scientific advance as an ideology.
 
FordSVT,
I'm pretty sure most people would turn it off in the shitter or at home much of the time, for example
Click to expand...

So you do concede that there are moments that should not be on the internet for all to see? I think being able to take a big massive dump in privacy is not unreasonable.

Look at all the people who'd love to be on a Big Brother type show and other reality TV outlets, who plaster hundreds of photographs and thought all over website for people to see.
Click to expand...

And you don't see anything wrong with this?

Technology is going to pervade every nook and cranny of our existence in the not so distant future.
Click to expand...

And this does not worry you?

The only thing worse than letting it happen naturally would be to legislate against it.
Click to expand...

Not all technology is good, that's just common sense.

Interestingly even in Star Trek (Which is a Sci-Fi show that embraces scientific progress) there are some technologies which they've outlawed. And it's not because the characters had anything against science.

Technology can be likened to fire; controlled properly it keeps us warm, helps us cook our food, boil our water; if not controlled properly, it kills you.


CuttingEdge100
 
Every generation has had it's technological and societal challenges, and we will continue to do so forevermore. It's not good or bad, it just is.

Should some technology in the future be outlawed? Maybe, but I don't think voluntarily filming oneself should be amongst it.
 
Meredith,

Native encryption... that means each computer has it's own individualized encryption system with it's own "fingerprint" right?
 
FordSVT,

Well you do know that cellphones can be remotely activated without the users knowledge or consent...

With our government's recent disregard for privacy pertaining to electronic eavesdropping and wiretapping, this strikes me as very dangerous as this system can gather enormous amounts information and intelligently organize it...


CuttingEdge100
 
CuttingEdge100 said:
FordSVT,

Well you do know that cellphones can be remotely activated without the users knowledge or consent...

With our government's recent disregard for privacy pertaining to electronic eavesdropping and wiretapping, this strikes me as very dangerous as this system can gather enormous amounts information and intelligently organize it...


CuttingEdge100
Click to expand...

I agree that this is an issue the public will have to be wary of. You are right that technology may get to the point where real privacy might be an impossibility. Hopefully, technology will provide an answer to that instead of legislation.
 
CuttingEdge100 said:
FordSVT,
I'm pretty sure most people would turn it off in the shitter or at home much of the time, for example
Click to expand...

So you do concede that there are moments that should not be on the internet for all to see? I think being able to take a big massive dump in privacy is not unreasonable.
Click to expand...

It's interesting because I've noticed from Youtube, MySpace and whatever that it seems more and more that people are unphased by cameras in places like locker rooms, dressing rooms and ... on the toilet. I guess it's an extension of just how pervasive all this stuff has become. There is sometimes a line at the point when there's actually nudity but I'm suprised with how comfortable people are changing clothes or talking while on the toilet when they know these videos will end up there (sometimes someone even says "I'm going to put this on MySpace" while recording).
 
FordSVT,
I agree that this is an issue the public will have to be wary of.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

You are right that technology may get to the point where real privacy might be an impossibility.
Click to expand...

We agree.

Hopefully, technology will provide an answer to that instead of legislation.
Click to expand...

However if technology can't, then legislation would be needed...


Mr. Adventure,
It's interesting because I've noticed from Youtube, MySpace and whatever that it seems more and more that people are unphased by cameras in places like locker rooms, dressing rooms and ... on the toilet. I guess it's an extension of just how pervasive all this stuff has become.
Click to expand...
(emphasis in bold mine)

Bingo.


CuttingEdge100
 
Mr. Adventure said:
CuttingEdge100 said:
FordSVT,
I'm pretty sure most people would turn it off in the shitter or at home much of the time, for example
Click to expand...
So you do concede that there are moments that should not be on the internet for all to see? I think being able to take a big massive dump in privacy is not unreasonable.
Click to expand...

It's interesting because I've noticed from Youtube, MySpace and whatever that it seems more and more that people are unphased by cameras in places like locker rooms, dressing rooms and ... on the toilet. I guess it's an extension of just how pervasive all this stuff has become. There is sometimes a line at the point when there's actually nudity but I'm suprised with how comfortable people are changing clothes or talking while on the toilet when they know these videos will end up there (sometimes someone even says "I'm going to put this on MySpace" while recording).
Click to expand...


Something like a cyber brain would have to setup where they would need a court order in order to get permission to get a copy of your recorded time such and such time till such and such time. If you posted it online it would be fair game as you would be the only person who could upload it.

You would probably want to also be able to "sync yourself up" with an external memory device you would have under lock and key at home / a secure location, so you could tell if you had any memories that were tampered with.

I think having a cyber brain would be a cool thing indeed. Not only would you gain the "superpower" of electronic telepathy, but you could take pictures with your own eyes and save your most precious memories on digital album you could re-visit anytime. You could take that song you heard on the radio and sample it and search for it on the internet while you were driving and upload it to your car stereo so you could hear it again while you were driving. You could become a savant without having to suffer all the social setback natural savants have to deal with. Need to multiply two large number and take the sin of it in your head, just pull up the calculator app in your cyberbrain and plug the numbers into it. Build a shopping list all throughout the week in you cyberbrain and the download the store information as you pull up to the store, you would never have to walk down the same aisle in the grocery store twice, and you wouldn't forget you need garbage bags as you made a note 4 days ago that you needed more bags. You could use it to help remember new faces, take a snapshot of the guy in the office and never have an awkward moment when you forget their name. But wait there is more, say you are driving and you see two cars run into one another and one drives away, you playback the last 5 minites of visual input data from your eyes and give the police the plate numbers of the guy who did the hit and run. Other things you could do is maybe enhance learning new skills and new knowledge, you could literally go to a cyber college while doing a 8-5 menial job as a parking garage attendant. You could download other people's experiences, or share a cool experiance with family members. You could type out a novel many times faster than a speedy secretary and interface with computer far more efficiently.



So act now, for only six easy payments of $19,995 you two can have a cyberbrain and do all sorts of cool, ass shit.
 
Meredith,
Something like a cyber brain would have to setup where they would need a court order in order to get permission to get a copy of your recorded time such and such time till such and such time. If you posted it online it would be fair game as you would be the only person who could upload it.
Click to expand...

Well technically the government needs a court order modern day to conduct searches. It doesn't stop them from doing it anyway -- That's what this whole warrantless wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping thing was about!

Bush technically was supposed to ask the FISA court for a warrant for all this (Technically the fact that the court is a rubber stamp court is a *major* problem...) but decided not to feeling he as President, Commander-in-Chief, and God apparently, it was within his executive power to do so and did it anyway.


CuttingEdge100
 
I should have updated this earlier... but since this last post a guy who worked at the NSA came out named Russell Tice and he stated that the NSA spied on everybody. Every phone call, IM, e-mail the government tapped (complex algorithms pick out key words that are of national security significance and flag them when the criteria is met, and a person then looks at it), and that the NSA deliberately monitored journalists in particular.

If this technology was in widespread use, the government could gathered far more personal information on ordinary American citizens.


CuttingEdge100
 
CuttingEdge100 said:
I should have updated this earlier... but since this last post a guy who worked at the NSA came out named Russell Tice and he stated that the NSA spied on everybody. Every phone call, IM, e-mail the government tapped (complex algorithms pick out key words that are of national security significance and flag them when the criteria is met, and a person then looks at it), and that the NSA deliberately monitored journalists in particular.

If this technology was in widespread use, the government could gathered far more personal information on ordinary American citizens.


CuttingEdge100
Click to expand...

They would love me after I watched the Marrissa stole the precious thing flash for the 60th time in a row the agent monitoring me would die from an anyerism.
 
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