Part of what the DSMLF is about is predicting the future – at least seeing the trends as they form and naming them. Life-recording 24/7 might be exactly such a trend, and one that will be here sooner than we realise.
You might think this is already going on, with the large amounts of images and video and text we record and produce today.
WE ARE IN A STATE OF RAPID EVOLUTION. THINGS THAT SEEMED ODD OR UNIMAGINABLE TEN YEARS AGO ARE COMMONPLACE TODAY.
An alibi if you need one
But this is only the beginning of what will come, and some would say is already here: The Alibi app lets users record non-stop 24/7 video, audio and location. As of now it deletes the last hour every hour, unless you tell it not to, but technically speaking you could save every hour of footage from a day, should you want to.
And this is what is most likely coming. Apps like Alibi will save your life recording in the cloud, and you can chose how long you would like the record kept (at a price).
Not recording, editing
This means is that choosing a moment to save and record will not be something you do in the moment, or forget to do (as is often the case) – but something you do after the fact, in the editing suite.
In stead of being unmediated and seeking mediation, you will always forever be a stream of information into a hard-drive. It’s the direct opposite of what life was like only thirty years ago.
A logical conclusion
It seems a logical conclusion to the stress of having to think about what to record. And this is already happening on a large public scale through CCTV.
- Will we simply accept being forever recorded?
- Will it stop being something creepy and invasive?
In all probability: yes.
We are in a state of rapid evolution. Technology is changing the way we live our lives faster than we realise. Things that seemed odd or unimaginable ten years ago are commonplace today.
We are – as physical bodies – just the raw material. In the future we will be multiples moving through worlds both real and virtual.