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Ask HN: If you could record your entire life from now going forward, would you?

4 points by bwood ↗ HN
If you had an easy way to make and store, say, a continuous audio recording at minimal cost, would you use it? Would it make a difference if you retained complete control over the recording? How would you react towards friends/family who use it?

I believe this is a very relevant question, because:

a) most people carry around a portable microphone with an internet connection in their pocket

b) storage costs are now at a point where it would be feasible to do this on a large scale

10 comments

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donohoe
No.

I prefer to not dwell on the past. I'm not sure I'd learn much from it either (via this means).

However - I would pay for a seamless device that would passively record the last 24 or 48 hours, deleting old footage as it adds more. To me, that is much more valuable.

zw123456
Why bother when the NSA is doing it for you.
bwood
I suppose one could argue that it could just as easily be used to prove innocence as guilt. Pretty much the ultimate alibi, assuming you didn't actually do it.
beat
Ugh, no.

In part, how do you sort out the relevant bits? If it takes a lifetime to record, wouldn't it take a lifetime to watch?

My wife has kept a journal most of her life. I suspect it would be fascinating for me if I ever read it (which I will, if I outlive her). I'm sure it'll be fascinating for our children. But really, I don't want to look right now, even though I could.

So if I recorded my entire life, who'd want to watch?

bwood
I've been considering building this as a personal project, because I never got to know my grandparents very well and sometimes I have conversations or experience things that I wish I could relive. I highly doubt anyone would ever bother with most of the recording. Sorting out the relevant bits is an open question, but I suspect a combination of speech-to-text with search and a timeline could help find interesting things.
true_religion
> If it takes a lifetime to record, wouldn't it take a lifetime to watch?

You could use voice recognition for all the records so you'd be able to accurately search back and search what has been said to you or by you.

You could probably use facial recognition for the same, to block out time spans you spent with specific people and rewatch them.

And ofcourse if its video, there's always the fast-forward button.

OafTobark
No. Would just pile up a bunch of garbage I would never go back and listen to and end up wasting money pointlessly.

I am sure for some out there, this might be something they want but personally I don't care

petervandijck
It would have to be free (storage cost will continue to drop quickly to a level where they're irrelevant) and the killer app would be a way to sort through it.

I'm sure if you build it some people will flock to it.

EllaMentry
There is a relevant Black Mirror episode where the premise is a society where the majority of people have implants that record everything around them (and can then project and playback these moments) - like all Black Mirror episodes it has some interesting insights into how this affects society and people.

I definitely think we should hold some people to these standards (law enforcement, security guards, judges, politicians to name a few) - but for society as a whole? No thanks.

Mankhool
No. There will be enough recording of me in public places and with Google Glass that I would not want anymore - even if it was self-inflicted.