Wipe The Slate Clean in 2010, use the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

Lifelogging is what we advocate. Life Blogging is what many of us also engage in indirectly by being a member of a social network that allows us to blab about anything we do, hear, see, think, etc. and converse with 10s, 100s, or even 10,000s of friends we never knew.  At some point the distraction may be just too great and you decide to get a life. This means you leave those sites and delete your friends, etc. Here's how to do it... by removing certain parts of your life from cyberspace, according to this article in Tech Crunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/31/web-2-0-suicide/

"Are you tired of living in public, sick of all the privacy theater the social networks are putting on, and just want to end it all online? Now you can wipe the slate clean with the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine . (Warning: This will really delete your online presence and is irrevocable). Just put in your credentials for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or LinkedIn and it will delete all your friends and messages, and change your username, password, and photo so that you cannot log back in.

The site is actually run by Moddr , a New Media Lab in Rotterdam, which execute the underlying scripts which erase your accounts. The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is a digital Dr. Kevorkian. On Facebook, for instance, it removes all your friends one by one, removes your groups and joins you to its own “Social Network Suiciders,” and lets you leave some last words. So far 321 people have used the site to commit Facebook suicide. On Twitter, it deletes all of your Tweets, and removes all the people you follow and your followers. It doesn’t actually delete these accounts, it just puts them to rest."

Wearable bio-logging used to "fight fat"

Fight against fat goes high-tech with new devices (AP):

The fight against fat is going high-tech. To get an inside look at eating and exercise habits, scientists are developing wearable wireless sensors to monitor overweight and obese people as they go about their daily lives.

Understanding food is still manual, but a necklace-cam sounds cool:

University of Pittsburgh engineer Mingui Sun has developed a necklace equipped with a video camera that records where a person goes and what he or she eats. Before a researcher sees the data, it's filtered by a computer that blurs out other people's faces.

The device is not smart enough to know whether the wearer ate a Big Mac or tofu. So a researcher inputs the food, and the computer calculates the portion size, calories and nutrients.

Socrates on the impact of technology for memories

I am often asked if e-memory technology will have a negativity impact on our human memories: will our bio-memories get flabby from lack of exercise if we rely too much on e-memories? This concern is nothing new; in fact, it is literally ancient. Here is Socrates, as quoted by Plato, convincing Phaedrus that this new-fangled technology called writing will lead to forgetfulness and only the “semblance of truth.” The emphasis added is mine.

Socrates: At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

Phaedrus: Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any other country.

Socrates: There was a tradition in the temple of Dodona that oaks first gave prophetic utterances. The men of old, unlike in their simplicity to young philosophy, deemed that if they heard the truth even from "oak or rock," it was enough for them; whereas you seem to consider not whether a thing is or is not true, but who the speaker is and from what country the tale comes.

Phaedrus: I acknowledge the justice of your rebuke; and I think that the Theban is right in his view about letters.

You can read the entire dialog at http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html

Lifebio.com: Helping everone create their own biographies!

I've watched a number of my friends create and publish autobiographies and celebratory biogrpaphies aka Festschrifts for their family and friends. This is a daunting task. LifeBio's tools with hundreds of questions are essential for people who want to pass on  their wisdom and stories to their progeny but cannot just gettiing started. Even those who are creating (auto) biographies the structure, checklist, and community provided at www.LifeBio.com will be useful.

"LifeBio was founded in 2000 by Beth Sancers and, since then, thousands of clients and dozens of communities have utilized LifeBio.com, the Memory Journal, other biography tools, services, and training available.

Beth states 8 princicples that have motivated and guided LifeBio:

1. Every person’s unique life experience should be acknowledged and celebrated.
2. All people, ...should be given the opportunity to pass on wisdom and values,..
3. People of all ages and backgrounds learn about themselves ...by telling and sharing life stories.
4. Life story questions must be meaningful and complete to ensure people’s stories are rich...
5. Every opportunity to involve families, volunteers, and youth in hearing and recording ...
6. When it comes to life stories, each person chooses what they wish to share or not share.
7. Sharing our stories helps all of us continue to learn, grow, and plan for the future.
8. Life story preservation is critical. ...ensure a lasting legacy ...honor the person’s journey."

Facebook and the law

A little while ago, I spoke at the Corporate e-Discovery Forum, where you find the legal experts who deal with electronic discovery. These folks really got the Total Recall message: "this is coming, and we'd better start getting ready," said one attendee. Already, this community is beginning to grapple with how much the law should protect the privacy of one's e-memories. I noticed this quote in a paper they were discussing about facebook and e-discovery:

The law in this area is just beginning to unfold. Its evolution will say a lot about who and what we are.