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Notes from Total Recall, by Gordon Bell:
pg. 5 Third [the third component of Total Recall], technologies enabling you to search, analyze, and present all kinds of reports from such large mountains of data [from components one and two] are being developed with astonishing results.
[Yeah? So how come I don't see any software improvements for searching my computer or the Web. (See next comment.)]
pg. 5 With the same ease with which you can now search for just about any subject on the Web, you will be able to search your own electronic memory . . . etc.
[If it isn't any better than what I can do now on the Web, I don't want it! Isn't he aware of any of the shortcomings of search engines like Google? E.g., my search for "Lee Frank" just returned pages for Frank Lee as the fourth and fifth matches. How helpful is that? Hell, I can't even specify I don't want any names of which Lee Frank is only a part, e.g., Jennifer Lee Frank. The point: Google (and others) does not now allow me truly exact matching. Without this, much of what I retrieve is garbage.
And more. I cannot set permanent preferences in Google (and others) to only return matched pages within the past year. Yes, I can set such temporarily, but not permanently. So every time I get obviously out of date matches (especially when trying to solve computer problems) I have once again to set my time preferences. Annoying as hell!]
pg. 5 You become the librarian, archivist, cartographer, and curator of your life.
[Or do you, since he seems to say the software will make most of the decisions for you. But if they can't and you do become all these things, then how is not more work?]
pg. 6 . . . it will be possible to generate a virtual you even after you are dead.
[Perhaps. But we still haven't solved the problems of guaranteeing either the data or the hosting. And without the guarantee, such a virtual you is no more than a will 'o the wisp.]
pg. 8 . . . a measure of earthly immortality by being cyberized ...
[I'd never seen this word "cyberized" before, yet a Google search yields 130,000 hits.]
pg. 9 The hard part is . . . how to efficiently organize it, sort it, access it, and find patterns and meanings in it.
[Exactly. But I have little confidence in what he presents as a solution to this hard problem.]
pg. 16 The 2004 move The Final Cut . . .
[There isn't any way this movie is a useful representation of anything he is proposing.]
pg. 17 . . . digital immortality, whereby a person's lifetime of experience, knowledge, and personality are simulated by a computer.
[A reasonable definition . . . if you don't take into account he didn't mention either the immutability of that simulation or its longevity — the latter more than a little relevant if you're aiming for "immortality."]
pg. 19 If they misplace their smartphone, they feel as if they've lost their minds.
[They have. At least that portion they've externalized on that device.]
pg. 22 Given enough criteria, a good search program will usually be able to find exactly what you are looking for.
[Yeah. If this were really true, then why did I get these responses?
No results found for "boolean search with browser".]
No results found for "boolean search using Google".
No results found for "boolean search using Internet Explorer".
There is no way to perform a Boolean search in Windows.]
pg. 32 I had already resolved in 1999 not to take any more paper newspapers.
[Good for him. I stopped in 1987.]
pg. 34 So I ran all the scanned documents through optical character recognition (OCR) software . . .
[Piece of cake, huh? Funny, when I do this I have to spend considerable time fixing what the OCR missed — even when it's 97% accurate. He never mentions doing this. But I doubt even his software is 100%. Must be some kind of invisible assistant, which he disingenuously doesn't mention.]
pg. 38 "The human mind doesn't work that way. It operates by association." —Vannevar Bush, 1945, on the Memex.
[Referring to the memory of just-barely-invented computers. First mention of associative memory in this book (see note for page 43).]
pg. 40 A few early steps in Total Recall have already hit the market. These include . . . support for desktop search in operating systems.
[Notice he says "support." I have yet to see a product any better than the old Unix GREP. For an old-time computer guy, he seems to have forgotten what kind of clever searches we used to have (like finding two strings appearing in user-selected proximity). I use a Windows freebie called Global Find, an easy GUI form of GREP.]
pg. 43 When indices are so comprehensive, and lookup by the index is instantaneous, indexing is actually the mechanism by which associative memory becomes possible.
[In some crude, non-human-type of associative memory, perhaps. But even indexing "every single word and phrase" (really? Who determines what constitutes a phrase?) as he states in the previous sentence, does not come close to what a human associative memory does, e.g., words that rhyme, words about smells, and so on. And those are just the words.]
pg. 55 . . . all I can remember of a joke is the great punch line that made me laugh, and I have to reinvent the rest in order to share it.
[Me, too. I consider it more efficient, not a defect.]
pg. 59 More than half a million of my fellow Americans also left their computers at checkpoints in 2008.
[I'm sure this information is from US airports, but how do you know they're all Americans? And isn't that a ridiculously large number?]
pg. 60 All we need is a little more software that can understand such things as milk being available at grocery stores.
[Is he not familiar with Cyc? ("attempts to assemble a comprehensive ontology and knowledge base of everyday common sense knowledge", Wikipedia.) Begun in 1984, all you need to know about Cyc is this clip, also from Wikipedia: "Much of the current work on the Cyc project continues to be . . ." Yeah, all we need.]
pg. 60 David Allen's popular book and seminar series Getting Things Done . . .
[Based extensively on use of the extended mind. See my comments re same at "The Extended Mind"]
pg. 62 Your mind can be freed from mundane memorization.
[Mine already is. Has been ever since I developed a system using daily transcriptions from a personal recorder entered into computer files. About 25 years ago. I only need to remember things long enough to get from the shower to the recorder (or the yellow pad always by my bed). I make lists; print and carry them; annotate changes and enter them back to computer files. I don't try to memorize anything. Ever.]
pg. 62 reQall, a really fascinating memory-aid product.
pg. 74 Lifelog (from DARPA)
pg. 76 Lifelog was cancelled.
[Because the pundits made it sound frightening.]
pg. 76 So Lifelog is dead; long live ASSIST! (Advanced Soldier Sensor Information Systems Technology)
[Also from DARPA; but more to their real needs (i.e., helping military debriefing).]
pg. 82 In general, Total Recall in the workplace means we stop doing so much work for the computer and the computer does more work for us.
[It's about time. But we don't need Total Recall to achieve this; we just need the will — and a technology that puts people first. The truth is that over the decades, more and more of my time on my computer (unlike Gordon I have no tech assistants) is spent on maintenance. I'm not holding my breath. Not as long as Microsoft dominates operating systems.]
pg. 87 I've spent enough hours of my life on hold being passed around between specialists from that company, because the right hand doesn't know what the left has been doing.
[Again: we don't need Total Recall to achieve this. And I'll bet you Total Recall won't fix it, either. It depends on what that company cares about: its customers or its internal efficiency.]
pg. 93 . . . my second double-bypass surgery.
[See notes for page 101.]
pg. 95 Most hospitals have not caught up with the efficiencies of our digital world.
[True, but this fact needs to be examined more closely. This failure is inexcusable and should be investigated — it's a public outrage. Surely, proper use of the computer would save money. So why wasn't it done?]
pg. 95 In American private-sector hospitals and nursing homes, as many as one in five medications are given in error, harming at least one and a half million people each year, with 7 percent of those errors being potentially life-threatening.
[Do the math: that's 105,000 lives threatened each year — by mistake. But it's all the same problem, i.e., poor control of information. Again, no excuse.]
pg. 96 The United States Veterans Administration, which cares for the health of the nation's ex-military personnel . . .
[Wrong, but a common misunderstanding. The VA cares for disabled veterans. Non-disabled veterans can apply for VA care — if they can meet the co-payments. Retired veterans are eligible for TRICARE, a different program.]
pg. 97 Fewer than a third of American doctors currently use electronic records.
[See the first note for page 95: it's the same problem! But why, a full forty years after the introduction of the affordable microcomputer, is the medical profession, hospitals and doctors alike, so far behind? I'll bet hard cash there is no other industry as far behind, and that includes farming and organized crime. This is scandalous.]
pg. 101 All though the sixties and seventies my general practitioner assured me a cholesterol level of 230 was normal.
[Really? And you had no clue? Never talked to anyone about this? And two bypass surgeries? Strikes me as a little shortsighted.]
pg. 101 My heart attack . . . was one of the factors that fueled my interest in starting up MyLifeBits.
[Not exactly a good indicator of foresight.]
pg. 115 [my cell phone] knows eighteen hundred numbers . . .
[I have to wonder how many are people and how many are companies. Does he really know all those people? (And I truly doubt his cell phone "knows" these numbers.)]
pg. 138 digital legacy
[Used, but not fully explained.]
pg. 139 virtual immortality
[Again, used, but not fully explained.]
pg. 140 I want to sit at my dining room table and have my wall [large screen] transport me to some other place or cherished past event . . .
[And it doesn't occur to him some people might overdo this? Perhaps he should watch a copy of the 1983 movie Brainstorm about a similar system of recording — wherein people "start abusing it for intense sexual experiences and other logical but morally questionable purposes."]
pg. 145 With automatic summarization . . .
[Now, there's a tricky AI problem.]
pg. 152 I've invested in a company called MyCyberTwin . . .
[Maybe for the future, but right now not so impressive.]
pg. 154 Personally, the more I learn about the machine intelligence the more I am impressed with the learning ability of the average two-year-old.
[Really. So why then are you so sanguine about the potential for future software to effectively access all this data?]
pg. 155 www.legacy.com, www.forevernetwork.com, and Famento.com offer to store etc. etc.
[Is he serious? They offer, but what's their guarantee? And why would you not care?]
pg. 156 Today, as I struggle with setting up Jim Gray's digital legacy . . .
[Searching for "jim gray" "digital legacy" did not match any documents! He disappeared on Jan. 28, 2007. It's been over two and a half years — and there's nothing! It doesn't need to be perfect, but how does he justify nothing? Once again, Total Recall is a big project, but produces very little in terms of small, useful, practical results.]
pg. 159 . . . and get fresh fruit from another continent.
[Does he really think it's fresh? Does he believe everything he's told? (Well, he did re his cholesterol.)]
pg. 160 We need improved data longevity.
[Absolutely. And nothing in this section suggests he has a clue.]
pg. 160 This . . . reminded me that I needed to be prepared to lose whatever is not backed up.
[Huh? "Prepared to lose"? Not me, pal. Over the decades I've lost a few files due to crashes, but none that I can recall because I failed to backup. (Files no, a couple of recently typed paragraphs, yes.) And you're going to tell me how it should be done?]
pg. 163 Surely there will be an evolution of law . . .
[LOLROFPIMP]
pg. 170 I think requiring consent to record will be the likely direction of custom and law . . .
[Seriously, is he unaware of the extent of recording abuse extant now? Has he ever been to a mall filled with teenagers? Get real, dude.]
pg. 173 . . . e-memories already contain everything an identity thief needs . . .
[True. But wouldn't a complete Total Recall lifelog be a target for potential blackmailers? Or other kinds of thieves (a full record of your comings and goings)? But the worst part of hacking into a lifelog is there's no easy way to tell the information is being used against you, unlike an identity theft.]
pg. 175 . . . this chapter is a plan of action for getting the revolution started in your life . . .
[This revolution he speaks of is saving everything. If enough people save enough, he assumes the finding part of this revolution will arrive. Then we will have his Total Recall. But keep in mind his primary interest is his capability to find (data-mine) what he's saved. So maybe it should be called Total Personal Recall?]
pg. 175 totalrecallbook.com
pg. 176 . . . I started my own Total Recall project back in 1998 . . .
[I'll make no comment here other than suggest you look at his website and decide for yourself what this project has produced for the rest of the world.]
pg. 182 Questia, the largest online library as of 2008 . . .
[He assumes subscribing is not a barrier for you.]
pg. 185 In 2008, ScanMyPhotos.com would scan a thousand photos for fifty dollars.
pg. 192 In meetings, I like to use OneNote.
[A Microsoft product. $99.]
pg. 192 . . . I prefer using ReQall.
[Voice-enabled memory aid. $24.99/year for the full version. Have to install it for each application, e.g., iPhone, web, email, etc. Could be the simple e-string-on-the-finger app. Or an e-nag.]
pg. 193 Evernote is another powerful e-memory tool.
[$45 for the Premium with 500MB of uploads a month, a little light if you're saving videos. The free standard version is only 40MB/month — and limited file types. Integrates with ReQall. Both these are probably worth a try with the free version if you're really hurting for information control.]
pg. 200 Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, software to make a copy of each [actual online] Web page is not commercially available.
[Wrong. My full professional Acrobat software, version 4.0 (1999), had this feature. However, the full Acrobat professional version (not the free reader) is not cheap. Currently, $449 from Adobe. Look for an older, used version.]
pg. 203 vSafe (from Wells Fargo)
[The Base Plan is 1 GB (2000 PDFs) $4.95/ month.]
pg. 207 . . . we are still waiting for the first company that can take a heap of someone's correspondence (e-mail, chats, letters, et cetera) and produce a really convincing impersonation.
pg. 210 DIGITAL AFTERLIFE
[Confusing. Mentions "time capsule" and "digital cemetery"? Nothing at all like digital immortality. How can these be called "life"?]
pg. 210 . . . the Format Master service . . .
[Can find no reference to this anywhere. No idea what this is.]
pg. 213 One could then dream of data-mining all these memories, looking for collective good, much the way that my personal memories will be mined for my own good.
[Huh? Who mines? Whose data? And how significant in the larger scheme is his personal mining of his data?]
pg. 217 When you blow a fuse . . .
[He's talking about the future here. Blown fuses? I haven't seen a fuse in over forty years. Circuit breakers, yes, but no fuses. But is he seriously suggesting our future technology can't prevent these major inconveniences?
And while we're talking about outmoded technology, how about hot water heaters failing and flooding? And toilets! How do we justify this unchanged hundred-year-old-plus technology? No, this is not an irrelevant point. Bell appears to be an advocate of the big utopian future instead of promoting small, useful improvements we can use now. The point? Time, money, and attention spent on utopian solutions are serious hindrances to the real progress that comes from small practical steps — as Karl Popper told us.]
pg. 218 Sometimes I wish that networking was considered part of the nation's infrastructure, like highways, so that we could mandate fiber everywhere as in other countries. [My italics.]
[Unlike most US users of the Internet, people like Gordon Bell know how lame our Internet is. But if it should be considered as part of our infrastructure then why don't most US users hear this discussion? Why isn't it being discussed in Congress? In the media? Are our technology leaders, like Gordon Bell (and by implication Bill Gates) so enamored of free market capitalism they can swallow such absurd failings? If the informed are not willing to be advocates for real progress, who will be?]
pg. 221 I've mentioned already that software will be a personal assistant to take care of a lot of the Total Recall chores.
[This is a future goal, but as things stand it is still so far in the future as to be nearly invisible. I created a definition of an Intelligent Valet over fifteen years ago — before the ubiquitous GUI browser. Aimed at coping with the information explosion, it's goals were very modest. "It would know what's available and help you access it. It would also keep track of your information interests and acquisitions." Don't know about you, but I could still use help like this.]
pg. 223 British Library's Digital Lives Conference
[http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/index.html]
pg. 223 Will my progeny one thousand years hence really be able to have a copy of all their ancestor's lives.
[Copy? He points out that "each person could have millions of ancestors . . .." So why does each person need a copy? Why not simply access?]
pg. 223 In 1995, 89 million hard drives were sold. In 2008 more than 480 million were sold.
[But what about comparing sizes, i.e., the total storage these two numbers represent? In 2008, I'd guess the average size was (conservatively) 200 Gigabytes. In 1995, one Gig would be generous. So size alone was a factor of over 200. Multiplied by the numbers of drives sold (5.4 times as many), you get a factor of well over a thousand (1078)!]
pg. 225 Mark Stewart . . . MyLifeDisk. It is a hyperlinked two-volume DVD chronicle of his life . . .
[Again: Discs? This is another copy distribution concept. Two DVDs is approx. nine Gigabytes, insignificant for Web hosting. And worldwide access. Why discs?]
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