What do you think?
Rate this book
Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything
THE TOTAL RECALL REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE.
IT WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.
IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.
What if you could remember everything? Soon, if you choose, you will be able to conveniently and affordably record your whole life in minute detail. You would have Total Recall. Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell draw on experience from their MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research to explain the benefits to come from an earth-shaking and inevitable increase in electronic memories. In 1998 they began using Bell, a luminary in the computer world, as a test case, attempting to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Photos, letters, and memorabilia were scanned. Everything he did on his computer was captured. He wore an automatic camera, an arm-strap that logged his bio-metrics, and began recording telephone calls. This experiment, and the system created to support it, put them at the center of a movement studying the creation and enjoyment of e-memories.
Since then the three streams of technology feeding the Total Recall revolution-- digital recording, digital storage, and digital search, have become gushing torrents. We are capturing so much of our lives now, be it on the date--and location--stamped photos we take with our smart phones or in the continuous records we have of our emails, instant messages, and tweets--not to mention the GPS tracking of our movements many cars and smart phones do automatically. We are storing what we capture either out there in the "cloud" of services such as Facebook or on our very own increasingly massive and cheap hard drives. But the critical technology, and perhaps least understood, is our magical new ability to find the information we want in the mountain of data that is our past. And not just Google it, but data mine it so that, say, we can chart how much exercise we have been doing in the last four weeks in comparison with what we did four years ago. In health, education, work life, and our personal lives, the Total Recall revolution is going to change everything. As Bell and Gemmell show, it has already begun.
Total Recall provides a glimpse of the near future. Imagine heart monitors woven into your clothes and tiny wearable audio and visual recorders automatically capturing what you see and hear. Imagine being able to summon up the e-memories of your great grandfather and his avatar giving you advice about whether or not to go to college, accept that job offer, or get married. The range of potential insights is truly awesome. But Bell and Gemmell also show how you can begin to take better advantage of this new technology right now. From how to navigate the serious questions of privacy and serious problem of application compatibility to what kind of startups Bell is willing to invest in and which scanner he prefers, this is a book about a turning point in human knowledge as well as an immediate and practical guide.
Total Recall is a technological revolution that will accomplish nothing less than a transformation in the way humans think about the meaning of their lives. "What would happen if we could instantly access all the information we were exposed to throughout our lives?" - Bill Gates, from the Foreword
IT WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.
IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.
What if you could remember everything? Soon, if you choose, you will be able to conveniently and affordably record your whole life in minute detail. You would have Total Recall. Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell draw on experience from their MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research to explain the benefits to come from an earth-shaking and inevitable increase in electronic memories. In 1998 they began using Bell, a luminary in the computer world, as a test case, attempting to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Photos, letters, and memorabilia were scanned. Everything he did on his computer was captured. He wore an automatic camera, an arm-strap that logged his bio-metrics, and began recording telephone calls. This experiment, and the system created to support it, put them at the center of a movement studying the creation and enjoyment of e-memories.
Since then the three streams of technology feeding the Total Recall revolution-- digital recording, digital storage, and digital search, have become gushing torrents. We are capturing so much of our lives now, be it on the date--and location--stamped photos we take with our smart phones or in the continuous records we have of our emails, instant messages, and tweets--not to mention the GPS tracking of our movements many cars and smart phones do automatically. We are storing what we capture either out there in the "cloud" of services such as Facebook or on our very own increasingly massive and cheap hard drives. But the critical technology, and perhaps least understood, is our magical new ability to find the information we want in the mountain of data that is our past. And not just Google it, but data mine it so that, say, we can chart how much exercise we have been doing in the last four weeks in comparison with what we did four years ago. In health, education, work life, and our personal lives, the Total Recall revolution is going to change everything. As Bell and Gemmell show, it has already begun.
Total Recall provides a glimpse of the near future. Imagine heart monitors woven into your clothes and tiny wearable audio and visual recorders automatically capturing what you see and hear. Imagine being able to summon up the e-memories of your great grandfather and his avatar giving you advice about whether or not to go to college, accept that job offer, or get married. The range of potential insights is truly awesome. But Bell and Gemmell also show how you can begin to take better advantage of this new technology right now. From how to navigate the serious questions of privacy and serious problem of application compatibility to what kind of startups Bell is willing to invest in and which scanner he prefers, this is a book about a turning point in human knowledge as well as an immediate and practical guide.
Total Recall is a technological revolution that will accomplish nothing less than a transformation in the way humans think about the meaning of their lives. "What would happen if we could instantly access all the information we were exposed to throughout our lives?" - Bill Gates, from the Foreword
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 17, 2009
24 people are currently reading
604 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
March 28, 2025
Oh to be a software engineer dude in San Francisco in the early 2000s with way too much time on your hands and unmatchable freak. The world was your oyster fr
August 26, 2020
本书的作者戈登（小型机之父，前DEC副总裁、微软“我的数字生活”项目负责人）从1998年开始，就尝试将自己所有的信息进行数字化保存，他脖子上挂着数码相机和录音设备，数码相机每隔20秒就自动拍摄一张照片，而录音设备会记录他讲过的每一句话。他的电话会自动被录音。他收听的广播电视节目也会被自动录制到电脑里。更不用说他的Email了，全部都保存着。他出生以来的所有纸质文件和证书都已经被扫描进电脑，甚至还包括他的电费账单。他访问过的每一个网页都有记录。当他外出时，随身携带的GPS设备会报告他每时每刻所在的方位以及去过的地方。而所有的信息存入电脑以后，都有一个专用软件进行信息管理。
通过这种方式，让戈登具备了“全面回忆”的能力，他可以轻而易举的找到发生在过去任何时刻的任何事物。比如毫不费力地告诉你过去10年自己说过的每一句话和每一个词语。他甚至可以告诉你，在2001年某一次会议上他所用的咖啡杯的颜色。你可以以分钟来再现他过去10年利的每一天。
我的天呀，这让我想起了英剧《黑镜子》，有一集就讲未来在脑后植入芯片，可以记录你一生眼睛看到的所有影像。没想到现在真的有人开始做了！原以为我坚持写工作日志、健康日志、记账、博客记录自己的生活就已经牛X了，可看完这本书才清楚自己还差的很远。
“全面回忆”将彻底改变人们工作和学习的方式，对于个人事业、健康、学习、情感等方面也有诸多好处，而我最关注的就是“全面回忆”能让你的身体更健康。
想想看，未来人们利用各种各样的移动设备，可以随时随地记录下健康数据：
睡眠数据：睡眠起始时间、睡眠质量；
饮食数据：一日三餐的饮食量及营养成分、饮水量；
运动数据：运动方式及时长、运动时的心率、消耗的热量；
情绪数据：脑电波频率、皮质醇；
生理数据：面貌变化、体重、血压、血糖、体温、脉搏、出汗指数；
环境数据：气温、湿度、空气质量、光照情况；
医疗数据：病历、检查、诊断、手术记录、药方。
然后再通过时间轴及各类可视化图表（健康状况趋势、不同指标间的相关性变动、不寻常之处等），自动生成一目了然的健康趋势报告，从而帮助我们改善健康状况。这种定量的个人健康大数据可以成为一剂强心针，会不断地激励你去好好照顾自己。比如通过清晰的图表，显示适度运动的确能行之有效地改善你的睡眠状况。这可比一般的建议或经常性的唠叨远远有效，它能够激励你多出去走走，因为这正是你自己的（数字化了的）经验给出的建议。
另外个人健康大数据还可以促进流行病研究、医疗、商业保险等领域的变革，比如：
通过研究所有人口的个人健康记录，专家们可以对原来猜测的某种病因相关性进行进一步的研究；
任何人走进医院，凭指纹和一滴血，就知道他的DNA、基因、体检数据，上一次体检和这次体检的差别，计算机告诉你差异在哪里，为什么有这个差异，这点差异应该用什么药；
保险公司也可以针对个体的健康数据，给出个性化的保费，降低保险成本。
随着中国老龄化社会的到来、日益严重的环境恶化及商品消费向服务消费逐步升级等因素共同刺激，可以料想健康产业将会蓬勃发展，而个人健康大数据在其中的作用也将会变得日益重要，甚至处于产业链价值的核心地位。而各大科技巨头也正在该领域积极布局，比如2014年苹果先后推出了Healthkit、iWatch等软硬件产品，帮助用户收集、分析个人健康数据，更不要说国内的诸多健康手环产品了。
所有这些，都在表明，个人健康大数据，不再遥远，未来已来。
你又在哪里？又在做什么？
（文：酷拉皮卡，更多文章详见“产品经理酷拉皮卡的博客”http://blog.sina.com.cn/kulapikasf）
通过这种方式，让戈登具备了“全面回忆”的能力，他可以轻而易举的找到发生在过去任何时刻的任何事物。比如毫不费力地告诉你过去10年自己说过的每一句话和每一个词语。他甚至可以告诉你，在2001年某一次会议上他所用的咖啡杯的颜色。你可以以分钟来再现他过去10年利的每一天。
我的天呀，这让我想起了英剧《黑镜子》，有一集就讲未来在脑后植入芯片，可以记录你一生眼睛看到的所有影像。没想到现在真的有人开始做了！原以为我坚持写工作日志、健康日志、记账、博客记录自己的生活就已经牛X了，可看完这本书才清楚自己还差的很远。
“全面回忆”将彻底改变人们工作和学习的方式，对于个人事业、健康、学习、情感等方面也有诸多好处，而我最关注的就是“全面回忆”能让你的身体更健康。
想想看，未来人们利用各种各样的移动设备，可以随时随地记录下健康数据：
睡眠数据：睡眠起始时间、睡眠质量；
饮食数据：一日三餐的饮食量及营养成分、饮水量；
运动数据：运动方式及时长、运动时的心率、消耗的热量；
情绪数据：脑电波频率、皮质醇；
生理数据：面貌变化、体重、血压、血糖、体温、脉搏、出汗指数；
环境数据：气温、湿度、空气质量、光照情况；
医疗数据：病历、检查、诊断、手术记录、药方。
然后再通过时间轴及各类可视化图表（健康状况趋势、不同指标间的相关性变动、不寻常之处等），自动生成一目了然的健康趋势报告，从而帮助我们改善健康状况。这种定量的个人健康大数据可以成为一剂强心针，会不断地激励你去好好照顾自己。比如通过清晰的图表，显示适度运动的确能行之有效地改善你的睡眠状况。这可比一般的建议或经常性的唠叨远远有效，它能够激励你多出去走走，因为这正是你自己的（数字化了的）经验给出的建议。
另外个人健康大数据还可以促进流行病研究、医疗、商业保险等领域的变革，比如：
通过研究所有人口的个人健康记录，专家们可以对原来猜测的某种病因相关性进行进一步的研究；
任何人走进医院，凭指纹和一滴血，就知道他的DNA、基因、体检数据，上一次体检和这次体检的差别，计算机告诉你差异在哪里，为什么有这个差异，这点差异应该用什么药；
保险公司也可以针对个体的健康数据，给出个性化的保费，降低保险成本。
随着中国老龄化社会的到来、日益严重的环境恶化及商品消费向服务消费逐步升级等因素共同刺激，可以料想健康产业将会蓬勃发展，而个人健康大数据在其中的作用也将会变得日益重要，甚至处于产业链价值的核心地位。而各大科技巨头也正在该领域积极布局，比如2014年苹果先后推出了Healthkit、iWatch等软硬件产品，帮助用户收集、分析个人健康数据，更不要说国内的诸多健康手环产品了。
所有这些，都在表明，个人健康大数据，不再遥远，未来已来。
你又在哪里？又在做什么？
（文：酷拉皮卡，更多文章详见“产品经理酷拉皮卡的博客”http://blog.sina.com.cn/kulapikasf）
August 27, 2017
"ماذا يحدث لو أن كل إنسان استطاع الوصول إلى جميع المعلومات التي تعرّض لها في حياته؟ لو كان ثمة طريقة لتذكر كل شيء كنا قد عرفناه من قبل، شخص مثلاً رأيته من قبل ورأيته مجدداً، ولكن عبثاً تحاول أن تتذكره من هذا الرجل.. هل رأيته من قبل؟ ومتى تحدثت إليه آخر مرة؟ الحقيقة إننا نتألم ونرتبك بسبب هذه المواقف. لكن التكنولوجيين يقولون إنهم حلوا هذه الأحاسيس وهذا ما يدور حوله موضوع الكتاب من خلال ما طرحه غوردن وجيم غيمّل في مشروعهما المسمى "ماي لايف بتسر" (بتات حياتي) يعالج هذه الأسئلة بالذات."
هذه هي الفقرة التي قرأتها وشجعتني لشراء الكتاب، والمصيبة أن هذه الفقرة منحتني تصور معاكس لمتحوى الكتاب، حيث ظننت أنها تتحدث عن تقنيات قد تحفز الذاكرة البيولوجية، إلا أن الكتاب يتحدث عن صنع ذاكرة الكترونية.
باختصار، أجد أن فكرة الذاكرة الإلكترونية فكرة مبالغ فيها بالطريقة التي استعرضها الكتاب، نعم أشجع رقمنة المصادر للحفاظ عليها وتسهيل الوصول إليها. فكرة التطبيق في بعض المجالات أمر جميل، لكن أن أحول حياتي كلها إلى ذاكرة الكترونية! اعتقاد غريب أن أفكر يوما أن هناك من يهتم أن يعرف تفاصيل حياتي بالطريقة التي وصفها الكتاب.
أن أحول حياتي إلى شريط مسجل ! أي حياة هذه التي أجتهد فيها لتوثيق كل شي، لا أحبذ أن يتم تعطيل الذاكرة البيولوجية بهذه الطريقة.
لن أخوض في التفاصيل، أترك لكم قراءة الكتاب حتى تحكموا على الفكرة
هذه هي الفقرة التي قرأتها وشجعتني لشراء الكتاب، والمصيبة أن هذه الفقرة منحتني تصور معاكس لمتحوى الكتاب، حيث ظننت أنها تتحدث عن تقنيات قد تحفز الذاكرة البيولوجية، إلا أن الكتاب يتحدث عن صنع ذاكرة الكترونية.
باختصار، أجد أن فكرة الذاكرة الإلكترونية فكرة مبالغ فيها بالطريقة التي استعرضها الكتاب، نعم أشجع رقمنة المصادر للحفاظ عليها وتسهيل الوصول إليها. فكرة التطبيق في بعض المجالات أمر جميل، لكن أن أحول حياتي كلها إلى ذاكرة الكترونية! اعتقاد غريب أن أفكر يوما أن هناك من يهتم أن يعرف تفاصيل حياتي بالطريقة التي وصفها الكتاب.
أن أحول حياتي إلى شريط مسجل ! أي حياة هذه التي أجتهد فيها لتوثيق كل شي، لا أحبذ أن يتم تعطيل الذاكرة البيولوجية بهذه الطريقة.
لن أخوض في التفاصيل، أترك لكم قراءة الكتاب حتى تحكموا على الفكرة
February 24, 2018
Every year I dream of finally getting organized, going completely paperless and having all my files available at the tips of my fingertips. Then life happens. In this book, Gordon Bell attempts to record his entire life digitally and describes all of the amazing benefits of being able to recall moments, access health records, and pull up old bills. I, unfortunately, read the book 9 years after it was published. So much of the software authors Bell and Gemmell talk about have been discontinued. Even if I had read it when it was first published, it didn’t satisfy the reason I picked it up, which was to create a paperless system. There’s no, or very little, instructions on how to go about doing it. Even so, I really enjoyed reading the book. Bell and Gemmell have just the right amount of humor and techno-speak to make it a very interesting read. I found myself agreeing with them more than disagreeing. They also rightly point out the dangers of having the information get into the wrong hands. What would be really interesting would be an additional volume to discuss where the project is today.
February 24, 2012
Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell is leading the charge to record every waking moment of your life (and even your sleeping ones) to digital media. *Total Recall* investigates what it would be like to be able to record and access all the data about your life anywhere anytime. Among other experiments, he wore a camera around his neck that took a picture automatically whenever the light changed, as when he entered a new room, and recorded his location via GPS; he tried out all sorts of health and medical recording gadgets, from the iPod pedometer to a bluetooth scale to monitor his weight, and a whole lot more.
The book describes the changes that cheap digital storage, automated recording equipment and computerized personalized search engines will make in our lives, probably whether we are willing participants or not, from careful monitoring of medical conditions over an entire lifetime to making it easier to eulogize an old friend, since you need no longer rely upon your own faulty memory or your disorganized paper records if you record everything to your "e-memory."
Bell's enthusiasm for the possible benefits of never losing another piece of information about yourself is admirable but his point of view has to be colored by the fact that he has resources at his disposal that the ordinary mortal cannot hope to muster: a personal assistant to scan and digitize all his paper records dating back to the beginning of his career at DEC in the 1960s and even farther back including his high school yearbooks, for example. His computer probably won't crash without a backup, destroying years' worth of family photos, and he probably has tech support to protect his personal information so identity theft may not be a big concern for him.
I contemplate the pile of old photo albums in my basement and despair of ever converting them all to digital. I am also painfully aware that simply digitizing everything doesn't make it "eternal" or easy to find. In fact, digital media requires constant vigilance to avoid data loss and obsolescence, and I'm not convinced that putting my entire life story in the cloud is a good idea. I'm not ready to trust my insurance company to keep track of all my exercise and eating records "for my own good," for example. But the reality is, more and more personal information is kept in bigger and bigger databases, so better to understand and use the march of "progress" to our own advantage than stick our heads in the sand. This book presents a useful peek into the not-too-distant future.
The book describes the changes that cheap digital storage, automated recording equipment and computerized personalized search engines will make in our lives, probably whether we are willing participants or not, from careful monitoring of medical conditions over an entire lifetime to making it easier to eulogize an old friend, since you need no longer rely upon your own faulty memory or your disorganized paper records if you record everything to your "e-memory."
Bell's enthusiasm for the possible benefits of never losing another piece of information about yourself is admirable but his point of view has to be colored by the fact that he has resources at his disposal that the ordinary mortal cannot hope to muster: a personal assistant to scan and digitize all his paper records dating back to the beginning of his career at DEC in the 1960s and even farther back including his high school yearbooks, for example. His computer probably won't crash without a backup, destroying years' worth of family photos, and he probably has tech support to protect his personal information so identity theft may not be a big concern for him.
I contemplate the pile of old photo albums in my basement and despair of ever converting them all to digital. I am also painfully aware that simply digitizing everything doesn't make it "eternal" or easy to find. In fact, digital media requires constant vigilance to avoid data loss and obsolescence, and I'm not convinced that putting my entire life story in the cloud is a good idea. I'm not ready to trust my insurance company to keep track of all my exercise and eating records "for my own good," for example. But the reality is, more and more personal information is kept in bigger and bigger databases, so better to understand and use the march of "progress" to our own advantage than stick our heads in the sand. This book presents a useful peek into the not-too-distant future.
May 20, 2010
This book describes the adventures of computer entrepreneur Gordon Bell into the world of "lifelogging," which can best be described by the motto "capture everything, discard nothing." Bell long ago started saving all email (except spam), wears a pendant camera to automatically log photos of his surroundings, has all of his telephone calls archived as audio streams, and has converted all paper worth saving to electronic form. He has now added much more, including a complete medical history and profile.
This basic idea has been around for many years. What has changed is that the data storage to save all of this is now a trifle -- $100 buys roughly one Tbyte of data, which is more than Bell has logged with all of his data streams. If anything, what struck me as a reader is how much of what Gordon has described in a book published just a few months ago is already available to the consumers. The iPhone, for instance, can now do much of what Gordon describes, including log GPS positions, record sound and video and hundreds of other related tasks. In fact, soon the iPhone will not only be able to record all of what a full-fledged lifelogger will need, it will be able to store it all as well (the new iPhone to be released next month is rumored to feature up to 64 Gbyte flash memory storage).
Gordon is very bullish on the "total recall" concept -- he equates it to "total freedom." He provides many examples of the benefits of storing all that data, everything from extracting the name and personal bio details of a person he met many years ago, to providing detailed documentation of his recovery from a major operation.
In one sense, it's hard to be completely objective about this book, since I know Gordon Bell quite well. For example, I headed the review committee for the Gordon Bell Prize (a prize in the field of high-performance computing that he pioneered and personally funded) for several years, and in fact received as a co-author of a paper in 2008. Even so, I very much enjoyed this book. Gordon really has a great skill in telling a good story, and it is hard to come away from reading this without resolving to follow in his footsteps to be a lifelogger myself. I've already taken several steps...
This basic idea has been around for many years. What has changed is that the data storage to save all of this is now a trifle -- $100 buys roughly one Tbyte of data, which is more than Bell has logged with all of his data streams. If anything, what struck me as a reader is how much of what Gordon has described in a book published just a few months ago is already available to the consumers. The iPhone, for instance, can now do much of what Gordon describes, including log GPS positions, record sound and video and hundreds of other related tasks. In fact, soon the iPhone will not only be able to record all of what a full-fledged lifelogger will need, it will be able to store it all as well (the new iPhone to be released next month is rumored to feature up to 64 Gbyte flash memory storage).
Gordon is very bullish on the "total recall" concept -- he equates it to "total freedom." He provides many examples of the benefits of storing all that data, everything from extracting the name and personal bio details of a person he met many years ago, to providing detailed documentation of his recovery from a major operation.
In one sense, it's hard to be completely objective about this book, since I know Gordon Bell quite well. For example, I headed the review committee for the Gordon Bell Prize (a prize in the field of high-performance computing that he pioneered and personally funded) for several years, and in fact received as a co-author of a paper in 2008. Even so, I very much enjoyed this book. Gordon really has a great skill in telling a good story, and it is hard to come away from reading this without resolving to follow in his footsteps to be a lifelogger myself. I've already taken several steps...
April 5, 2011
As I began reading it soon felt like an infomercial. Thus, I set it aside for a few days. but later resumed because it is a topic I am very interested in. For the rest of the book, I used speed reading techniques.
As a boy I dreamed of having a computer in the basement. I imagined that I could put it together from scrap parts. I had no idea how I could pay for the air conditioning bill, but knew that I had to do it. I imagined that it could be doing complex computations that would not be practical without a computer, and that it could work for hours or days on those problems while I was off doing other things.
The author of this book has a dream and he is living his dream, so I read with great interest his account of Total Recall, and MyLifeBits. I wondered if I could obtain a copy of the hardware/software that he is using. But after a bit of an Internet search I concluded that it does not exist as a commercial product.
The first two sections of the book detail his experiences in getting his pictures, email, paper documents, and electronic records from various places, including at least one former place of employment, all into his storage and recall system.
In the third and last section of the book, he admits that there are some concerns; data loss, backup, the mass of data storage require, but even more importantly, some concerns about recording and keeping everything. Privacy concerns of our own selves, and out of respect for others are part of it. Another part of it is that there are some things that we would rather forget because they are embarrassing, or unpleasant, or compromising. As a technologist, he feels that these problems are solvable. My feeling is that these problems will cause the adoption of this kind of technology to be slow.
It is easy to have the impression that the adoption of the recent technologies, such as the Internet was quite rapid, but like so many other technologies, it takes many years from inception, to early adopters, to easily useable, and then to mainstream. What he describes requires both hardware and software, which increases the cost, and they are not yet available in a single package, so, it will be quite a few years for this to become common.
As a boy I dreamed of having a computer in the basement. I imagined that I could put it together from scrap parts. I had no idea how I could pay for the air conditioning bill, but knew that I had to do it. I imagined that it could be doing complex computations that would not be practical without a computer, and that it could work for hours or days on those problems while I was off doing other things.
The author of this book has a dream and he is living his dream, so I read with great interest his account of Total Recall, and MyLifeBits. I wondered if I could obtain a copy of the hardware/software that he is using. But after a bit of an Internet search I concluded that it does not exist as a commercial product.
The first two sections of the book detail his experiences in getting his pictures, email, paper documents, and electronic records from various places, including at least one former place of employment, all into his storage and recall system.
In the third and last section of the book, he admits that there are some concerns; data loss, backup, the mass of data storage require, but even more importantly, some concerns about recording and keeping everything. Privacy concerns of our own selves, and out of respect for others are part of it. Another part of it is that there are some things that we would rather forget because they are embarrassing, or unpleasant, or compromising. As a technologist, he feels that these problems are solvable. My feeling is that these problems will cause the adoption of this kind of technology to be slow.
It is easy to have the impression that the adoption of the recent technologies, such as the Internet was quite rapid, but like so many other technologies, it takes many years from inception, to early adopters, to easily useable, and then to mainstream. What he describes requires both hardware and software, which increases the cost, and they are not yet available in a single package, so, it will be quite a few years for this to become common.
did-not-finish
February 1, 2013I abandoned this book in the middle. Actually, ironically, I was listening to it in audiobook format and forgot to rip the first disc to my player! I had no problem entering the book at the second disc, but after listening to several hours of the book I had three revelations: (1) the author is right - we are inexorably moving toward what he calls "life logging" - recording in some way almost everything that happens to us. (2) There are a lot of ins and outs to "life logging", including legality of recording certain things, security and privacy concerns (what if an identity thief gains access to your life log - an issue the author blows off as of marginal importance), and the immense difficulty of doing all of this with current technology. (3) I'm already doing some of this (witness the review you are reading!) but I'm not going to intentionally try to expand into as many areas of life as I can. It's just too much trouble.
Then I realized something else: I was getting a little bored with the actual book. Not that the book is boring; it is well-written and the topics are interesting. But it started to come across as a little bit too enthusiastic about recording as much of your life as possible. Am I going to spend hundreds of dollars on scanners, cameras, and hard drives, and thousands of hours of time, to get a system like his up and running? Nope, I'm certainly not. The idea of doing that seems a little fanatical to me.
Will we all be doing much of what the author talks about within years or decades? I think most of us will. And I think it will be very valuable to us, in just the ways the author envisages. Is it worth it to start it now? It might be if you enjoy doing it, but I think the barriers are high enough at this point in history that we can afford to wait for the world to catch up with us and reduce the friction to getting started.
Then I realized something else: I was getting a little bored with the actual book. Not that the book is boring; it is well-written and the topics are interesting. But it started to come across as a little bit too enthusiastic about recording as much of your life as possible. Am I going to spend hundreds of dollars on scanners, cameras, and hard drives, and thousands of hours of time, to get a system like his up and running? Nope, I'm certainly not. The idea of doing that seems a little fanatical to me.
Will we all be doing much of what the author talks about within years or decades? I think most of us will. And I think it will be very valuable to us, in just the ways the author envisages. Is it worth it to start it now? It might be if you enjoy doing it, but I think the barriers are high enough at this point in history that we can afford to wait for the world to catch up with us and reduce the friction to getting started.
January 1, 2011
"The coming world of Total Recall will be as dramatic a change in the coming generation as the digital age has been for the present generation. It will change the way we work and learn. It will unleash our creativity and improve our health. It will change our intimate relationships with loved ones, both living and dead. It will, I believe, change what it means to be human.
This book is based heavily on Gordon Bell's experience with the MyLifeBits research project - a prototype system to digitally record, store, and organise as many aspects of Bell's life as possible. This involved converting all paper based information (bills, receipts, certificates, photos, letters etc) to digital format and also digitally logging a range of life information on an ongoing basis (location, financial transactions, photos/video, health information, exercise details etc). The book distinguishes between the practices of life blogging (publicly broadcasting details of your life through sites like Facebook and Twitter) and life logging.
This is a fascinating book which highlights the growing importance and potential benefits of e-memories - while some of the potential applications discussed seem quite futuristic, others are immediately applicable. The downside of increased digital recording of our lives is discussed briefly, but the book pitches Total Recall as an inevitable future step, so the discussion is more about developments/systems that may be put in place to ensure the security/privacy of data (like the creation of Swiss data banks).
The book also includes a very comprehensive references and resources section.
More at Webby Clare.
This book is based heavily on Gordon Bell's experience with the MyLifeBits research project - a prototype system to digitally record, store, and organise as many aspects of Bell's life as possible. This involved converting all paper based information (bills, receipts, certificates, photos, letters etc) to digital format and also digitally logging a range of life information on an ongoing basis (location, financial transactions, photos/video, health information, exercise details etc). The book distinguishes between the practices of life blogging (publicly broadcasting details of your life through sites like Facebook and Twitter) and life logging.
This is a fascinating book which highlights the growing importance and potential benefits of e-memories - while some of the potential applications discussed seem quite futuristic, others are immediately applicable. The downside of increased digital recording of our lives is discussed briefly, but the book pitches Total Recall as an inevitable future step, so the discussion is more about developments/systems that may be put in place to ensure the security/privacy of data (like the creation of Swiss data banks).
The book also includes a very comprehensive references and resources section.
More at Webby Clare.
August 31, 2011
Gordon Bell stands out as one of the most influential people in the history of computing. Unlike how it may seem at first glance, this book is not an infomercial for Microsoft. It is a series of well-meditated observations and extrapolations about what will happen to us as we're able to make the digital recording of practically everything we experience part of our permanent and immediately accessible e-memory.
For sure, there are some gaping holes in Bell's narrative, not the least of which is addressing questions concerning the commercial interests that will likely safeguard our lifetime of e-memories in the cloud. If you think Google accidentally suspending your account today is bad news, what will happen in 30 years when your life depends on being able to access that data? E-memory will be like the third hemisphere of your brain, and losing access to it may feel very much like a virtual lobotomy.
Like many other enthusiastic pioneers, Bell assumes that the dangers will ultimately sort themselves out. His eye is on the final prize. And what a prize it will be...from health benefits to radical leaps in learning to an overhaul in how jobs are conducted. It's hard to read "Total Recall" and not be swept away by Bell's vision and his proof for how near we are to taking these last few steps.
If you enjoy technology and get fired up by ideas and their potential for your future, don't miss "Total Recall." And if you're still curious to learn more about Gordon Bell, I conducted a lengthy interview with him, which will soon appear in my ebook, "Architects of Tomorrow, Volume 2."
For sure, there are some gaping holes in Bell's narrative, not the least of which is addressing questions concerning the commercial interests that will likely safeguard our lifetime of e-memories in the cloud. If you think Google accidentally suspending your account today is bad news, what will happen in 30 years when your life depends on being able to access that data? E-memory will be like the third hemisphere of your brain, and losing access to it may feel very much like a virtual lobotomy.
Like many other enthusiastic pioneers, Bell assumes that the dangers will ultimately sort themselves out. His eye is on the final prize. And what a prize it will be...from health benefits to radical leaps in learning to an overhaul in how jobs are conducted. It's hard to read "Total Recall" and not be swept away by Bell's vision and his proof for how near we are to taking these last few steps.
If you enjoy technology and get fired up by ideas and their potential for your future, don't miss "Total Recall." And if you're still curious to learn more about Gordon Bell, I conducted a lengthy interview with him, which will soon appear in my ebook, "Architects of Tomorrow, Volume 2."
August 6, 2011
This book is about a subject that I've always been fascinated by – collecting a representation of everything in your life that it is possible to store digitally. Gordon Bell has used what would be his retirement years to probe the boundaries of Extreme Personal Information Management. Making good use of what he describes would require an extraordinary combination of visualization, image processing, 3D modeling, collective intelligence, and a panoply of format processors capable of extracting meaning from images, videos, text, and audio both from the past and as they are created. Bell has covered all of this in the “My Life Bits” project for close to a decade. This book describes his journey. It also points the way for us to make the most impactful use of all of this information. This applies to our work lives of course, but the emphasis here is on the personal, and the ability to become as deep a digital curator of our own lives as Bell describes here is only now just coming online for most people.
Things move fast, so much of what Bell describes is commonplace only two years after he wrote this book. But he recognized that this would be the case, and predicts the wondrous becoming commonplace in his book. So the book will remain interesting and predictive for some time to come.
I recommend “Total Recall” whole-heartedly.
Things move fast, so much of what Bell describes is commonplace only two years after he wrote this book. But he recognized that this would be the case, and predicts the wondrous becoming commonplace in his book. So the book will remain interesting and predictive for some time to come.
I recommend “Total Recall” whole-heartedly.
June 22, 2012
I honestly never finished this book, but I lost it and haven't really cared enough to start looking sense. If I ever really do find it I'll most likely skim through the remaining chapters, give it a whimsical "hmm", and throw it behind me and over my head where it will lay wherever it lands for around a year. I did try my best to best into it. I find the subject of extending ones memory beyond the boundaries of the mind. I got the books in hopes that it would attempt to lay down some proficiency of how easy this would be in the future; what I got instead was a journal of one persons slaving attempt to record everything. It bored me, and the reviews I read never mentioned the book delivering anything different. I was hoping he found a way to make recording and organization as close to automatic as possible, since that would seem to be the only way to make a product like this applicable to most people. He didn't. I could not justify giving this 1 star since the truth that I never finished the book, but I can't justify giving more than 2 stars to a book that lost my complete interest a quarter through.
Read
November 1, 2014No no - not the Arnold movie
This covers much of what Robert Sawyer covered in his Neanderthal trilogy.... the ability to store everything about your life - what you saw, what you read or wrote, what you heard - eveything.
However, this is no science fiction story - this is the real life activity of Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell researching how this might be achieved. Fascinating idea. In Sawyer's novel, crime was pretty much non exisitent. If you get accused of murdering someone on a particular day - all that is required is to roll back the record to that time and see if you had any contact with the victim.
Beyond what is required technically to do this is the notion of who is allowed to see thsi record and under what conditions.
It occurred to me that if such a technology existed - combining that with virtual reality technology would let you "live a day as a particular person" - relive an important day of that person. However, if it did exist I'm sure the porn industry would be first adaptors and make a fortune. ;-)
This covers much of what Robert Sawyer covered in his Neanderthal trilogy.... the ability to store everything about your life - what you saw, what you read or wrote, what you heard - eveything.
However, this is no science fiction story - this is the real life activity of Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell researching how this might be achieved. Fascinating idea. In Sawyer's novel, crime was pretty much non exisitent. If you get accused of murdering someone on a particular day - all that is required is to roll back the record to that time and see if you had any contact with the victim.
Beyond what is required technically to do this is the notion of who is allowed to see thsi record and under what conditions.
It occurred to me that if such a technology existed - combining that with virtual reality technology would let you "live a day as a particular person" - relive an important day of that person. However, if it did exist I'm sure the porn industry would be first adaptors and make a fortune. ;-)
November 14, 2013
A book that any tech geek will love. Bell is a strong advocate for digital storage of everything... and I mean EVERYTHING! While I don't completely agree with his mentality on many of the topics, I still admire his passion for what he has developed and his vision for the future.
There are certainly many benefits to Bell's approach to a digital catalog of one's life, but there is something to be said for the impermanence of certain aspects of life. He does touch on the subject of forgetting painful memories, but I think he glosses over the downside of holding onto these negative periods in our life. It is often helpful to forget, rather than dwell on mistakes/hardships. We need to learn from them, but part of that process includes moving on.
Overall, this is an awesome book that I wizzed through in a single day. Lots of great insights into the future of tech.
There are certainly many benefits to Bell's approach to a digital catalog of one's life, but there is something to be said for the impermanence of certain aspects of life. He does touch on the subject of forgetting painful memories, but I think he glosses over the downside of holding onto these negative periods in our life. It is often helpful to forget, rather than dwell on mistakes/hardships. We need to learn from them, but part of that process includes moving on.
Overall, this is an awesome book that I wizzed through in a single day. Lots of great insights into the future of tech.
September 14, 2015
Total Recall provides a glimpse of the near future. Imagine heart monitors woven into your clothes and tiny wearable audio and visual recorders automatically capturing what you see and hear. Imagine being able to summon up the e-memories of your great grandfather and his avatar giving you advice about whether or not to go to college, accept that job offer, or get married. The range of potential insights is truly awesome. But Bell and Gemmell also show how you can begin to take better advantage of this new technology right now. From how to navigate the serious question of privacy and serious problem of application compatibility to what kind of startups Bell is willing to invest in and which scanner he prefers, this is a book about a turning point in human knowledge as well as an immediate practical guide
February 25, 2014
So the author gives us a prediction 10 years from fruition. A prediction made 5 years ago. A prediction that we're supposed to be halfway to. A prediction that aint happenin'!
The author is what I like to refer to as an Einstein-ian Technologist, a person who sees big things if only we could realize a unified theory of technology. Sure 'life logging' would be great if we eliminated all competition and then all the then monopolies worked together to make the world a better place, but that's just not realistic.
Another beef I have with 'storage of everything' is you'll either spend your whole life organizing it or 'recalling' it due to bad organization.
I will give him an extra .5 stars for his imagination though, 2.5 stars.
The author is what I like to refer to as an Einstein-ian Technologist, a person who sees big things if only we could realize a unified theory of technology. Sure 'life logging' would be great if we eliminated all competition and then all the then monopolies worked together to make the world a better place, but that's just not realistic.
Another beef I have with 'storage of everything' is you'll either spend your whole life organizing it or 'recalling' it due to bad organization.
I will give him an extra .5 stars for his imagination though, 2.5 stars.
February 25, 2014
This is an interesting forward-thinking book. It not only gives one man's view of how technology will affect the future of everyday life - how we will live, work, learn, etc. with instant access to our basis of knowledge, pictures, sounds, and experiences - but how the tech industry sees the future and where the industry is focused. The main focus at this year's CES, the annual consumer electronics trade show, was the wearable devices that will lead this e-memory industry. If everything comes together the way Mr. Bell and Mr. Gemmell imagine it will, or if more people end up using the devices in the ways the authors have already been using them, then this book will become a prescient view of the final days of the pre-Total Recall revolution.
October 4, 2010
I feel this book had a true bias, and motivation to spin e-memory as only positive. Unlike another recently read book called "Delete," "Total Recall" seems to only nod at the dangerous dilemma all cyber-users put themselves in. Yes, this ability to call up just about every aspect of one's life can be a good thing- but in an age of identity theft, internet stalking, social parasitic behavior- e-memory really only takes away from individualism and will remind us only of what is there to see on the web. It was a very interesting book, and great to read while reading a book that strays to the other side of this doule-edged sword.
December 6, 2012
2012 has been my year of going paperless and aside from a collection of unread books, I think I'm actually going to make it. I've been scanning like crazy (no really - like crazy) and formulating long range archival/retrieval plans. Total Recall seemed both cutting edge and out of dates - all in one. Out of date (for me) because I'm on the leading edge of the e-memory revolution; cutting edge because his vision of where e-memories will take society are amazing.
It might be a bit much for a casual reader, but if you're at all interested in staying current with major changes in personal information technology - I highly recommend this book.
It might be a bit much for a casual reader, but if you're at all interested in staying current with major changes in personal information technology - I highly recommend this book.
Read
September 21, 2009Ross interviewed Jim Gemmell, co–author of "Total Recall," on the September 21, 2009 episode of "The Conversation."
Download the podcast here: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18454
In 1998, Gordon Bell began to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Today the technology makes it easier for everyone to track their lives. What is gained from having the specific data of your life recorded and at your disposal? How could data mining the facts of your life improve your life? What if someone steals your digital records? Jim Gemmell, co–author of "Total Recall," explains.
Download the podcast here: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18454
In 1998, Gordon Bell began to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Today the technology makes it easier for everyone to track their lives. What is gained from having the specific data of your life recorded and at your disposal? How could data mining the facts of your life improve your life? What if someone steals your digital records? Jim Gemmell, co–author of "Total Recall," explains.
Want to read
February 23, 2012I am an information hoarder. If I learn something, however trivial I want to be able to recall it later. This book sounds like it has some interesting (if extreme and perhaps scarey) ideas on technology that can do this.
"...exploring first- hand the implications of storing our entire lives digitally... the technology is already here and will be ubiquitous before we know it."
-Guy L. Tribble, MD, PhD, VP Software Technology, Apple Inc.
Video here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalin...
"...exploring first- hand the implications of storing our entire lives digitally... the technology is already here and will be ubiquitous before we know it."
-Guy L. Tribble, MD, PhD, VP Software Technology, Apple Inc.
Video here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalin...
October 11, 2009
Gordon Bell decided one day to record everything--and I mean everything possible. He digitized documents, photos. He recorded conversations. He snapped pictures as he went about his life. This book is his take on the future of such endeavors. What could we do with all of this information--good and bad? What technologies could be developed to make use of it? Digital memory is of no use, he understands, without smarter searching. Interesting. 10/09
April 3, 2010
This book is worth a skim, but there's not much meat. The idea of being able to save everything you ever read, see, peruse, hear in your life in some digital media is a little creepy. But I have to admit, if the search of this material will be as easy as the author suggests it would be awfully useful to remember people's names, what was discussed at what meeting etc. I would also love to have a resource like this for some of my great great grandparents. Still, it's creepy.
May 3, 2010
"Imagine a time in what you can sit in front of the computer and review every important information about yourself. And if you want more detail you can point and click - that detail will show up on screen (...), besides all other information about someone could have interest in, including the ones that are not available today.", Bill Gates, 1990. This time is coming fast and this book will give a good insight about the impacts of having an integral memory
Read
May 23, 2010A peek into the future of storing memories so that our lives can be the subject of total recall for our heirs. While some memories are worth storing, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know every detail of my life. I am interested in getting rid of stacks of records that could be stored digitally, and I think health information that could be shared with physicians showing daily and even hourly changes might be helpful to health care providers.
May 11, 2012
I recommend this book to all gadget junkies, closet techies and organization adicts.
As I ran today listening to Total Recall on my smartphone with internet access, a camera, my planner and live links to facebook, twitter and linkedin, I ralized how close we already are to that technology.
If you want to stay anywhere near the cutting edge of technology or business or even life. This book is a must read.
As I ran today listening to Total Recall on my smartphone with internet access, a camera, my planner and live links to facebook, twitter and linkedin, I ralized how close we already are to that technology.
If you want to stay anywhere near the cutting edge of technology or business or even life. This book is a must read.
March 12, 2015
Ok, the authors are working for Microsoft and the companion website or the associated Facebook address have not been updated since 2012... What does that tell us?
Probably that the world is not really ready yet for a Total Recall Revolution. The trend might be here, but this is still not a commonplace attitude...
Interesting book nonetheless and only three stars because it read too much like a Microsoft ad at times...
Probably that the world is not really ready yet for a Total Recall Revolution. The trend might be here, but this is still not a commonplace attitude...
Interesting book nonetheless and only three stars because it read too much like a Microsoft ad at times...
April 9, 2015
This book made me want to get rid of more of my stuff and record less! I'm into the Quantified Self but the idea of archiving it to review the distant past kinda creeps me out. I want a picture of today that I can use to direct my future. I don't want future generations to interact with a simulacrum of me. I'd rather be able to interact with simulacra of THEM! A lot of food for thought here but for some reason, I found this to be a very slow read.
July 19, 2010
I was expecting more a more technical book. This book seems to be geared towards people who are not very familiar with technology. Granted, the appendix did have some technical information, but it would have been better had it been indexed to sections of the main text. In summary, I don't think that this book should have been 300 pages.
July 29, 2010
A really interesting book filled with life-changing ideas, many of which I'm going to take on board. A shame there wasn't more examples from the project itself, as a lot of the examples felt a little like theory at times, but still really interesting and looking forward to seeing how the project that the book is based on emerges in real life products.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews