In the New Yorker a couple issues back, they ran a profile of a Microsoft engineer who is attempting to record and preserve every aspect of his daily life. Every e-mail he’s written, every photograph that he’s taken or appeared in, he even records his conversations with a small digital recorder. He seems to think that before long, everyone will be documenting their lives on the fly.
I think I’ve previously mentioned my compulsion for saving old e-mails and archiving my college papers and atrocious poetry. And I have sometimes daydreamed what it would be like to have some sort of brain augment to capture, store, and catalog every second of waking life. Think of all the facts I could harvest from such a record. How many hours of my life have I spent in front of the computer? How many kisses have I received and from whom? Did I really say that awful thing to you that one time? Imagine if each one of us was constantly and subconsciously compiling a personal almanac that could be referenced at any time. It could be a great way to correct misunderstandings (“See, I did return that tennis racket I borrowed from you.”). But it might also drive home the unceasing and cumulative tedium of existence (I’ve spent how many hours of my life in the bathroom?”).
Siegel,
Never fear. I’VE saved all your emails, and will happily remind you of all the embarrassing, ridiculous, and hilarious things you’ve said/done/thought. Actually, I plan to publish all our emails once you’re REALLY famous. Could you get started working on that, by the way? It’s about time I started profiting from this friendship. (And linking yourself on “wikipedia” doesn’t count as pursuing fame!)
Amy
Keeping a handwritten diary is one of the great pleasures of my life, and I enjoy very much reading what others tell or confess about their personal life experiences.
Thanks to some old though badly-written daily comments on my African years, I could write a book about what it meant to be a white young woman in Congo.
Marc, you could write some kind of autobiography yourself, you’d do it with ease , in a beautiful style, and I guess you’d write it in a truthful way. It would be a phantastic thing to do, and lots of people would adore reading it.