Life Recorders May Be This Century’s Wrist Watch

I wonder what the legal implications of wearing a wire all the time are? 'cause it would actually help me out quite a bit, at least if there was a way for me to easily add tags (or otherwise make it search able)

Y'all should check out the movie The Final Cut ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cut_(2004_film)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cut_(2004_film)</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2978742553/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2978742553/</a> ). Not only is this one of the best Robin Williams movies I've seen, but it is also one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in a while.

Rather than just collecting data as a reference, I really like the idea of analysing what I've been doing (often wasting time!) and taking the chance to live my life better in future.

My collaborator Ted Nelson (of Xanadu fame) has been carrying a camcorder to record (on hundreds of tapes) just about every conversation with people he's met, for about 30 years. Pretty ahead of his time, I guess. I'm on some of his tapes too, which is nice.

Have any of you read David Brin's "Transparent Society" <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Transparent-Society-Technology-Between-Privacy/dp/0738201448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#38;s=books&#38;qid=1252345687&#38;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Transparent-Society-Technology-Between...</a> He makes the argument that universal monitoring is going to happen, almost certainly, and the only real alternatives is who gets to watch, just the gov't, or will we get to keep an eye on the gov't too?

In the long run this will be revolutionary for society. The benefits of being able to observe videos of ones self in sport are well recognised and they should carry over to ordinary life as well. 'Know thyself' could finally be possible (as long as you have the time to watch the 'logs').<p>For society it should bring in huge reductions in crime as well as many types of deceptive behaviour. Combined with reputation management people would have a bigger incentive to do good.<p>Society will probably need to adjust to a few 'minority' behaviours somewhat analogous to homosexuality. Those who had recognisably harmful conditions would be able to identify them and have access to help.<p>I'm sure there will also be some problems, but they will be dwarfed by the benefits. Data is power.

This sounds like about the worst idea I've ever heard of. Big brother's ultimate fantasy.

I voted yes. I'd definitely get one of these if it was affordable and discreet (or otherwise fashionable).<p>I'd even consider broadcasting everything live most of the time.. but not 100% of the time.<p>I think the realism of this device depends on the stage of your life and work, too. For example, within the context of a start-up, I'd definitely not want the photo of every person I meet broadcast to the world. However, within the context of blogging and being an online personna, if that was my full-time job (and who knows, it may get to that later on), this device would be great.

I thint this thing would be very useful even if not connected to web. If it could write everything to disk, not to web. Of course - volume of its memory will have to be enormous.<p>Also - it has to encrypt data with private key, and public key will be safe in home, so nobody can see your whole life when you will lost this thing, or sbd will steal it.<p>About crime prevention etc - there should be button that starts sending all data to police without encrypting it in real time.<p>I would buy one.

It will lead to a whole new level of celebrity culture. If you're interested in someone's life, then you can watch it live! Either that or it will kill all interest as people realise how mundane other people's lives are.<p>Also, has anyone read Halting State by Charles Stross? In that book life recorders are commonly used by, for example, the local police force in their day-to-day investigations.

Crowdsourcing meets 1984...

It is really fascinating to see the oppositional reactions to this idea. It seems like either people love it or they are really scared (like me) and cannot understand why other people would like it. This is also reflected in the poll results on TC (so far).

I can see a device like this embedded in the line just above the windshield in cars. Instant black box, accident investigations would become a lot easier.<p>Not sure if I'd like the privacy issues resulting from that though.

I've lost count of the times my wife has said: "I never said that..." And I thought, "Damn, I wish I had recorded that conversation... if only there was a device..."

full on information over load, i can hardly keep up with the digital photos between my laptop, desktop and iphone.

i want this now, I've been trying to monitor what I'm doing using a mashup of rescue time, saving tweets, but an auto camera and audio recorder? perfect.<p>Speaking of, has anyone ever filmed themselves to see how they interact in social situations?

I don't want my ancestors knowing about some of the things i lookup on the internet just for giggles... or seeing how many times i turn the device off while sitting at the computer.

Consider changes for crime and evidence sitauation. Especially against drunk people and in countries (like my native Sweden) where the police force isn't functional.<p>Consider generation two, when loggers have monitoring of e.g. blood pressure and pulse -- and automatic notification of ambulances.<p>I want one, too. (No, I don't drink much!)

"Imagine a small device that you wear on a necklace that takes photos every few seconds of whatever is around you, and records sound all day long"<p>Your own personal NSA.