Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything

by C. Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell

What if you could remember everything? Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell draw on experience from the MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research to explain the benefits to come from an earthshaking 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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525951342
• ISBN13: 9780525951346
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Remember Everything.. How Cool Would That Be?

Every since I read "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates I've been thinking about how the technology coming will record everything.. and how much that is akin to what we were taught in Sunday School about God knowing everything we did. Today, that's coming true. Not from angels writing it down in a books on high, but self reported GPS, tweets, posts and purchase records. "Total Recall" is a hand on look at just how close we are.. and why most of us will want to embrace this.

Easy read, practical -- insights from early participants

There are many branches of the tree of accelerating technology. Bell and Gemmell's book focuses on the current and future effects of information retention and, more importantly, information retrieval. They range from practical advice -- make scanned bills PDF searchable -- to future scenarios where so much information has been retained that we can "talk" with our long dead great grandparents (via artificial bots made smart by massive knowledge of the subject). The book is somewhat happhazardly organized but I gave it a five star anyway because of the insights and the fact that Bell went through the process of recording his life, using prototype software. Someone who has "done it" speaks with more authority than an armchair quarterback. After reading the book, I thought ... of course -- explained in the context of massive increases in storage, networking and computing power, it all makes sense. Bell and Gemmell are relatively conservative in their predictions. They touch on some of the security issues but do not dwell on them. It is probably just as well, since the trend to increasing storage of events is inevitable and security will just have to be worked out. How many business meetings have I attended where ten people have been introduced in about ten seconds? A universal recall device would come in pretty handy. Bill Yarberry, Houston, Texas

A top pick for general and college-level collections across the board

TOTAL RECALL: HOW THE E-MEMORY REVOLUTION WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING comes from a legendary computer scientist and a Microsoft senior researcher who reveal the social, political and technological changes coming from a new digital revolution. New innovations in memory and search techniques will soon make it possible to record and recall everything one has ever seen or done. Total Recall will have vast impact across society and will change the world: this study tells how to anticipate changes and is a top pick for general and college-level collections across the board.

My Cloud is Lacking

Loved it!!! You don't have to be a scientist to enjoy TR. GB managed to intertwine the technical with personal anecdotes and stories enabling the reader, no matter the level of knowledge, to get it! Stuff from the past, today, future, and beyond--help with issues we all face now, but he also stretches us into the future. I read it cover to cover. Now in my 5th career, author, many times I've found my memory lacking (character attributes, where did I reference her parents, his quirky habit, what book/chapter in the series--if only my e-memory were in place). With each book, I create more and more piles. Being a piler I gained insight into how I can minimize the clutter and find more information as a result. Because of the way they set up the "Annotated References and Resources" I can easily dip in to get help on my current organization issues. A fun read. mj:) Author, "Murder in the House of Beads, Intercept, and Checkmate"

e-Memories, light the corners of my screen

What to say about a book claiming, 'Everything' will be changed by the ability to capture, 'Total' digital records of everything that happens to you? This book says creating e-Memories are here, mixed with, some of it's on the way. 'Everything' consists of a much lower resolution then reality. Just digital images (scan, photo, a small bit of video), perhaps audio, and text. Not 24/7. No stereoscopic images. Nothing 3-D. No touch, smell, taste. No shiny gold-tape playback of e-Memories like in the movie, 'Brainstorm.' 'Total' consisting of some things we choose, some things we don't, some have legal issues. Without a staff, interns, custom written software, hardware, and funding by a large corporation, it seems clear that 'Everything' and 'Total' will be boiled down to tiny e-Memories for most of us. The premise is great and the current delivery may not be here, doesn't mean that this discussion isn't worth the read. I like the book for revealing so much about where current technology could go. Setting the goal for, 'a lifetimes worth of data' brings in very interesting issues. Perhaps, greater usability could come from intelligent built software for managing data. The less maintenance one does, the greater the benefit. A good example is automatic time and location stamping of digital photos. The book does cover some interesting concepts about how embedded and integrated technology could have a greater impact on our lives. Though it seems to shy away from the corporate economic hold that technology has on individual data. Who owns your data? How private is private? How secure is it? Will it be accessible at a future point? How does it all get paid for? Will we sale Ad Space to support our e-Memories? Will people make comments on your e-Memories? Do people really want to spend time collecting data about their lives? The methods described don't really address people who already do keep handwritten or visual journals. An area that technology has found difficult to solve. Yet, Leonardo Da Vinci's journals are some of the most interesting records of man we have from the past. Not because it tells us what his heart rate was, or which streets in Milan he walked, but because his creative thinking was captured in drawings and text. I believe that until common technology supports direct input of handwriting and drawing, it'll be difficult to have paperless e-Memories. According to the authors, having a digital version of something, means you discard the original. Difficult for me to believe? Just because there's a digital copy of the Mona Lisa, I would not throw the original away. Even the author makes the point in getting started (Page 204) that an important task is to, "Third, make a print version of your interactive data." Paper requires no power source to access and no decrypting. There is a bit of irony, that the authors printed a book to discuss everything becoming digital and paperless. It isn't just the software formats that become inaccess