Phone to record your life.

[Yorick]

How bad is what I read in the Evening Standard today?? They're advocating a phone where people will take snapshots of something, add a memo, and upload it so they remember where it is.

Now.... I could be wrong, but I do believe there is a thing called a MEMORY which does this exact function!!!

Anyone else appalled? How reliant are we on photos to be our memories? On computer diaries to remember all we have to do??

[johnny]

Drink two bottles of Vodka, and see if tomorrow you can remember exactly where you were and what you did. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Barry the Sprout]

Ok, so I wouldn't buy one as I'd forget to take photos with it, but I still think in principle it'd be useful. I'm always forgetting stuff - places to be, stuff to do, car keys and tube passes... Not everyone can remember everything you know.

[Yorick]

But why weaken the memory? Working at remembering something you've forgotten trains your memory, and helps you avoid certain age related dementia.

I often don't take photos so that my mind remembers the actual experience, rather than remembering just the photo.

[LennonCook]

Photos are often good to stimulate the memory - find an old one, "now where was I then?". But I agree that having something like this is taking that concept a bit too far - it tells you what was happening, you remember the general event, but you don't get the need to recall thoughts and emotions that photos provide. Journals and diaries serve the same purpose: when you read through it (or when someone else does), it can be pictured what was happening - it stimulates the mind. But being able to simply "replace" the mind does not serve as any stimulation.
Proffesionals, surgeons for example, need to be able to remember things without the need for much stimulation - they need to be able to perform an operation properly without stepping through it with the text book.
We put notes up for ourselves so that we can puzzle over them, and stimulate our minds to remember things we would otherwise have probably forgotten, we (are meant to) take notes at school because it is too much to remember in detail without some stimulation. We have phones to communicate with other people. So, yes, I do see alot wrong with using a phone to basically replace a human skill.

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Yorick: But why weaken the memory? Working at remembering something you've forgotten trains your memory, and helps you avoid certain age related dementia. I often don't take photos so that my mind remembers the actual experience, rather than remembering just the photo.

Well, you go train up that dear wee memory of yours then Yorick! Personally I quite enjoy having technology that will increase the potential archive-space of my brain.
I'm all for remembering experiences. If I try, I can still smell the air in Rome from my holiday last year (it was quite pleasant ), or see the bright lights of Oxford St on the Sunday Night when I met Barry, Charlie and Laura. But photos enable me to put experiences in a 'filing cabinet' of my brain, so I can keep adding fresh data to my memory every day. When I see an old photo, the filing cabinet opens up and all the sights, sounds, smells and feelings come rushing back. It's a flood of sensation. It's great!

[johnny]

So Aaron, what exactly do you smell when you look at old babypics of yourself ?

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by johnny: So Aaron, what exactly do you smell when you look at old babypics of yourself ?

Roses
And I see the sun... shining out of my ass

But the burning question is what delights would we be subject to if we could experience the sensation that is a Johnny morning-after? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 03-18-2004, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

[Gnarf]

Originally posted by johnny: Drink two bottles of Vodka, and see if tomorrow you can remember exactly where you were and what you did. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I doubt whatever picture and memo you put on yer phone will be of much help [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Epona]

Originally posted by Gnarf: quote: Originally posted by johnny: Drink two bottles of Vodka, and see if tomorrow you can remember exactly where you were and what you did. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I doubt whatever picture and memo you put on yer phone will be of much help [img]tongue.gif[/img] [/QUOTE]I'd be more worried about the pictures my mates might take of me tbh

Digital cameras are bad enough - one moment of idiocy and it's all over the internet in glorious technicolour Only of course it's never just one moment of idiocy, oh no. More like a long running serial.

I have seen photos of me in places I don't remember being, with people I don't remember meeting. It's handy cos it sort of fills in the gaps