Recording memories

In an article about IT and telecom and internet in 25 years, I read a lot of speculation, some things I do believe will be reality then, and some interesting points which made me start thinking.
One was that storage will be so cheap and abundant that we will "be able to record every minute of our life in blue-ray quality". Never mind that blue-ray by that time will be at least as old as the compact disc now -- did you still know that that's what the abbreviation CD stands for?).
This is an interesting thought, because we do A LOT in our lives. We work and have fun, discuss and relax, fight and love. We have great moments and bad ones, success and failure, good and bad luck. And we talk to lots of people all the time.
By the way, ever thought how many people you've met in your life? Or just shaken hands with? Or only even seen? But that's food for another thought.
So anyway, from all these events, we generally only take a minute small sample that we actually, conscientiously or not, record. We take photographs and shoot movies during holidays and at important happenings (like weddings and other rites of passage). This is somewhere stored uniquely. But we also write emails (maybe even letters still?), tap in sms's and chats and other whatsapp messages. This somehow stored too, maybe elsewhere (in the case of a letter maybe at the recipient's house in a cupboard). And if we walk on the street or come into a store or bank, we are recorded in CCTV. This is usually only temporarily stored and not generally accessible. Finally, we talk to lots of people. This is generally not at all stored in face-to-face situation (except maybe in spy environment), but it may well be when over the phone and certainly on voice recorders.
By the way, I find it quite strange that voice recordings are so little used and popular. For it is a very personal and unique characterization of the person, and make one relive memories much more vividly than e.g. a letter or even a photograph. There was a time that the post office offered a service to send a cassette tape with voice greetings. If you still remember these things, of course. Again, that's food for another thought.
Now back to recording your life. Would you even WANT to know what you've been doing all this time in the past? Apart from very amusing and ecstatic moments there will most probably also be some pretty embarassing ones, and ones you definitely want to forget rather than remembered or recorded. There are also the intimate moments (e.g. personal hygiene) you rather not see -- or at least not to others.
Some kind of trial was run by an MIT professor who decided to hang his house full of cameras. His explanation was that he wanted to study how babies learn to speak from "gaaaa" to "dad". The university-backed "data-rich research" was probably also motivated by stark narcism and/or true naive love for his first-born sun. Whatever the case, the data can indeed be used to study this linguistic evolution, but also social behaviour in a familiy in general, including trying to find certain patterns in one's life (and how many times you make the same mistake or how fast you learn, etc).
So, though I realise there may be many narcistic people on the planet, I guess that to most sane people recording a whole entire life is over the top. Something they would not want, or at least would want to control what's being saved.
On the other hand, whether you want to record your life or not, you're GOING to be filmed and photographed and recorded much more than in the past. Simply because there ARE many many more recording devices around on the street. Take for example the CCTV's, which have become abundant in cities for security reasons after 9/11. They take fooatge 24/7 of everything passing them. And take smartphones, which have equally become abundant as prices drop thanks to mass production (in China and elsewhere). They can take footage from anything that happens anywhere anytime.
By the way, quality is less an issue, as long as footage can be taken. There is an interesting spagate between evolution between HD-quality and youtube/smartphone quality footage. Another thought.
So, it's a new world. It's the 21st Century. Welcome. Better get used to it. And smile... it's a candid camera!
(photo: flickr.com)