Life Logging

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Life Logging

  • In the context of my life I can't see wanting to do this. But in the context of the server that would be pretty cool, I just don't what what you would log without the sheer volume of data becoming overwhelming.. And then what about the server to support the life logging of the other servers and so on..

    CEWII

  • The problem I see with doing this, is how do you correlate everything together without having to spend an exorbitant amount of time? Without a way to easily access that one thing that you did months or years ago would be nearly impossible.

  • I'm pretty sure human memory already accomplishes enough of this to make it unnecessary.

    I can't imagine anyone finding the mundane details of my life fascinating enough that recording all of it would have any value. That most definitely includes me - I just can't imagine that I would ever need or want to know what I had for breakfast every day for the last 40 years.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • No thanks! The volume of data would be overwhelming. Storage density would be an issue, and retrieval time would be problematic.

    Besides, do I really want hundreds, thousands or perhaps trillions of extraneous bits of data stored that had to do with all the blind alleys and mistakes?

    And what about all the stuff that is now useless because of changes in technology? Will I ever need to program a Vic 20 again??

    There is also always the threat of misuse if others accidently or intentionally gained access to all that information.

    I'll stick with my stacks of notes, floppies, CDs, old disk drives, and heavily filtered personal memories.

    Reality... Bah Humbug...

  • "Happiness is good health and a bad memory." - Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)

    So much for happiness.

  • (1) Think about all the value this has for management. Managers can see exactly what people have been doing, how they spend their (salaried) time, and how effectively and efficiently they work. They could see how many problems you cause, or even use the information for determining who contributed to a problem. Would you benefit from having Management see how much you really contribute? Would you tremble at the thought of Management seeing how much time you waste? Do I want my manager to know how much time I am spending replying to this post?

    (2) Think about how this could be used by police, or as a plot for a TV show? With a few keystrokes, your life would be available. It would reduce the number of questions the police would need to ask you.

    (3) In business intelligence work, we talk about getting information from data. Capturing an entire life is one thing. Getting useful information out of it is another.

    David

  • Good points David.

    Also, what about intentional, or unitentional misrepresentation of the "Facts" contained in the "life log.'

    Deleting an outdated backup (totally innocent action) could be interpreted after the fact as trying to hide a crime. Your actions could implicate you as a "co-conspirator" in circumstances where you had no idea a crime was taking place.

  • There are definitely issues with security here. I was thinking more of something you would have that would be private as I am sure it would be misused by companies.

  • For work this could be valuable - if it's tweaked for the purpose at hand (like tracking code changes).

    For personal life though - "Dear Diary...." for the hyper-anal-retentive :sick:

  • Steve Jones - Editor (12/8/2009)


    There are definitely issues with security here. I was thinking more of something you would have that would be private as I am sure it would be misused by companies.

    So, what's wrong with "Brain 10,000 BC" (I don't even want to know what the version number would be for the human brain - assuming the kind of nerve cells and notochords used by invertebrates are representative of the first production version)?

    It's as private as anything's going to get.

    It stores a simply vast amount of data, but with the right training (software upgrades), it has "speed of thought" data retreival.

    Needs some work on long-term retention, but even there, it's better than trying to get data out of computer systems that are comparably old. I can remember things from grade school, but good luck on accessing computerized data from the 70s.

    I personally have a really bad index set up for names, but it works most of the time when I really need it.

    It includes video, audio, tactile, olfactory, data and opinion storage banks. Some are easier to access and higher definition than others, but that's also something that can be improved by training.

    We could improve brain-to-brain communication protocols, mainly in terms of standards compliance, but even there, we've made huge strides over the last couple of centuries. Though we have had some serious setbacks, such as IM-speech and l33t-speak. (Writing, speaking, etc., are some of the comm protocols, and languages are the standards.)

    I'm satisfied, thus far, with my copy of "Brain", for purposes of recording my life for me. Would like some feature upgrades, and a few bugs need to be fixed (what's up with that senility "feature"!), but nothing too extreme. I certainly don't want a refund at this point. 🙂

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • GSquared (12/8/2009)


    I'm pretty sure human memory already accomplishes enough of this to make it unnecessary.

    I can't imagine anyone finding the mundane details of my life fascinating enough that recording all of it would have any value. That most definitely includes me - I just can't imagine that I would ever need or want to know what I had for breakfast every day for the last 40 years.

    Disagree that this doesn't have value, although you may not want to troll through your breakfast cereals on a whim.

    The practice of medicine should be addressing all of a person's life, not just the few aspects that are currently focused on due to the pH of your urine, or the color of the fungus growing on the back of your (fill-in-the-blank).

    If a doctor could access your exercise, dietary and sleeping habits, how much more beneficial would their treatment be than what results from the lies you tell them when you're in the office? Or the things you don't know to look for, but they are trained to, but forget to ask you about?

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  • merodach (12/8/2009)


    For work this could be valuable - if it's tweaked for the purpose at hand (like tracking code changes).

    For personal life though - "Dear Diary...." for the hyper-anal-retentive :sick:

    only if implemented in SQL Server with full-text search enabled... otherwise you are just inflicting a bored heir to hours of bad writing with a striking match as a climax.

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    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • jcrawf02 (12/8/2009)


    GSquared (12/8/2009)


    If a doctor could access your exercise, dietary and sleeping habits, how much more beneficial would their treatment be than what results from the lies you tell them when you're in the office? Or the things you don't know to look for, but they are trained to, but forget to ask you about?

    I seriously doubt that it would be beneficial to them at all, for several reasons:

    1. The massive volume of data they would have to slog through.

    2. The information could be of little use to the problem at hand. (Knowing I ate Cream of wheat for breakfast for 20 years probably doesn't help much if I got hit by a bus.)

    3. Your body changes significantly over the years.

    4. Doctors frequently don't make use of the historical or even current information they already have at their disposal. Been to the emergency room lately? You'll tell a minimum of three people what is wrong, they'll all write it down, and the doctor will still ask what the problem is because they never bothered to read the piece of paper in front of them.

    I do agree with the "forgot to ask" part though, the only reason my colon cancer was caught very early was because a new doctor put me through a complete physical, then asked the right question during a "you need to come in now" return visit. I credit that more to the specific doctor's brain, than I do to anything that would have been in a "life log." Given my extremely varied diet over the years I doubt the life log would have been any help in diagnosing the cancer, or even raising any warning flags.

  • bwillsie-842793 (12/8/2009)


    jcrawf02 (12/8/2009)


    GSquared (12/8/2009)


    If a doctor could access your exercise, dietary and sleeping habits, how much more beneficial would their treatment be than what results from the lies you tell them when you're in the office? Or the things you don't know to look for, but they are trained to, but forget to ask you about?

    I seriously doubt that it would be beneficial to them at all, for several reasons:

    1. The massive volume of data they would have to slog through.

    2. The information could be of little use to the problem at hand. (Knowing I ate Cream of wheat for breakfast for 20 years probably doesn't help much if I got hit by a bus.)

    3. Your body changes significantly over the years.

    4. Doctors frequently don't make use of the historical or even current information they already have at their disposal. Been to the emergency room lately? You'll tell a minimum of three people what is wrong, they'll all write it down, and the doctor will still ask what the problem is because they never bothered to read the piece of paper in front of them.

    I do agree with the "forgot to ask" part though, the only reason my colon cancer was caught very early was because a new doctor put me through a complete physical, then asked the right question during a "you need to come in now" return visit. I credit that more to the specific doctor's brain, than I do to anything that would have been in a "life log." Given my extremely varied diet over the years I doubt the life log would have been any help in diagnosing the cancer, or even raising any warning flags.

    1. true, they'd need good tools. Separate discussion.

    2. depends what's being looked at. Breakfast cereal is probably not that vital, yes, silly example. But having the data there on everything means the doc could look at what they want, not limited to your cream of wheat. (dude, try Fruity Pebbles)

    3. exactly, and those changes would show up in the data, or at least probable causes for them. Think House, what's the first thing he always does? Sends someone to break into the patient's house and find any possible contaminants. [rant]Then he diagnoses syphilis of the brain again, but that's an unoriginal writer's flaw, not a doctor's. [/rant]

    4. separate discussion again. The value of the data is unchanged by bad doctors, unfortunate as that occurrence is.

    yes, my post lives in an ideal world, but if the data is not provided to them, they have zero chance of finding it.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

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