Total recall

by C. Gordon Bell

A legend in computer science unveils the digital revolution that will transform human memory.In 1998, pioneering computer scientist Gordon Bell and his colleague Jim Gemmell at Microsoft began an experiment called MyLifeBits— an attempt to record Bell's entire life digitally. Foreseeing the coming explosion of digital memory capacity and ubiquitous sensing devices, Bell set out to create a database of everything he did, saw, read, ate, felt—his whole life experience. He fused together a digital version of his past (scanned photos, letters, memorabilia, and so on) with a cuttingedge recording of his present, using sensor-enhanced cameras, GPS, and the latest in software technology. Fascination with this amazing undertaking has been ongoing, with features running everywhere from CBS to Scientific American, The New Yorker to Fast Company. But until now the full implications of what is really possible have not been revealed. Bell's experiment is only a foretaste of an incredible new era in