Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything

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Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything

by Gordon Bell, Jim Gemmell

3.16 · rating details · 81 ratings · 26 reviews

THE TOTAL RECALL REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE.

IT WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.

IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.

What if you could remember everything? Soon, if you choose, you will be able to conveniently and affordably record your whole life in minute detail. You would have Total Recall. Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell draw on experience from their MyLifeBits project at M...moreTHE TOTAL RECALL REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE.

IT WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.

IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.

What if you could remember everything? Soon, if you choose, you will be able to conveniently and affordably record your whole life in minute detail. You would have Total Recall. Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell draw on experience from their MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research to explain the benefits to come from an earth-shaking and inevitable increase in electronic memories. In 1998 they began using Bell, a luminary in the computer world, as a test case, attempting to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Photos, letters, and memorabilia were scanned. Everything he did on his computer was captured. He wore an automatic camera, an arm-strap that logged his bio-metrics, and began recording telephone calls. This experiment, and the system created to support it, put them at the center of a movement studying the creation and enjoyment of e-memories.

Since then the three streams of technology feeding the Total Recall revolution-- digital recording, digital storage, and digital search, have become gushing torrents. We are capturing so much of our lives now, be it on the date--and location--stamped photos we take with our smart phones or in the continuous records we have of our emails, instant messages, and tweets--not to mention the GPS tracking of our movements many cars and smart phones do automatically. We are storing what we capture either out there in the "cloud" of services such as Facebook or on our very own increasingly massive and cheap hard drives. But the critical technology, and perhaps least understood, is our magical new ability to find the information we want in the mountain of data that is our past. And not just Google it, but data mine it so that, say, we can chart how much exercise we have been doing in the last four weeks in comparison with what we did four years ago. In health, education, work life, and our personal lives, the Total Recall revolution is going to change everything. As Bell and Gemmell show, it has already begun.

Total Recall provides a glimpse of the near future. Imagine heart monitors woven into your clothes and tiny wearable audio and visual recorders automatically capturing what you see and hear. Imagine being able to summon up the e-memories of your great grandfather and his avatar giving you advice about whether or not to go to college, accept that job offer, or get married. The range of potential insights is truly awesome. But Bell and Gemmell also show how you can begin to take better advantage of this new technology right now. From how to navigate the serious questions of privacy and serious problem of application compatibility to what kind of startups Bell is willing to invest in and which scanner he prefers, this is a book about a turning point in human knowledge as well as an immediate and practical guide.

Total Recall is a technological revolution that will accomplish nothing less than a transformation in the way humans think about the meaning of their lives. "What would happen if we could instantly access all the information we were exposed to throughout our lives?" -Bill Gates, from the Foreword(less)

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published September 17th 2009 by Dutton Adult (first published 2009)

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Aug 06, 2011

Gary Lang added it

This book is about a subject that I've always been fascinated by – collecting a representation of everything in your life that it is possible to store digitally. Gordon Bell has used what would be his retirement years to probe the boundaries of Extreme Personal Information Management. Making good use of what he describes would require an extraordinary combination of visualization, image processing, 3D modeling, collective intelligence, and a panoply of format processors capable of extracting mea...more

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May 19, 2010

David rated it

This book describes the adventures of computer entrepreneur Gordon Bell into the world of "lifelogging," which can best be described by the motto "capture everything, discard nothing." Bell long ago started saving all email (except spam), wears a pendant camera to automatically log photos of his surroundings, has all of his telephone calls archived as audio streams, and has converted all paper worth saving to electronic form. He has now added much more, including a complete...moreThis book describes the adventures of computer entrepreneur Gordon Bell into the world of "lifelogging," which can best be described by the motto "capture everything, discard nothing." Bell long ago started saving all email (except spam), wears a pendant camera to automatically log photos of his surroundings, has all of his telephone calls archived as audio streams, and has converted all paper worth saving to electronic form. He has now added much more, including a complete medical history and profile.

This basic idea has been around for many years. What has changed is that the data storage to save all of this is now a trifle -- $100 buys roughly one Tbyte of data, which is more than Bell has logged with all of his data streams. If anything, what struck me as a reader is how much of what Gordon has described in a book published just a few months ago is already available to the consumers. The iPhone, for instance, can now do much of what Gordon describes, including log GPS positions, record sound and video and hundreds of other related tasks. In fact, soon the iPhone will not only be able to record all of what a full-fledged lifelogger will need, it will be able to store it all as well (the new iPhone to be released next month is rumored to feature up to 64 Gbyte flash memory storage).

Gordon is very bullish on the "total recall" concept -- he equates it to "total freedom." He provides many examples of the benefits of storing all that data, everything from extracting the name and personal bio details of a person he met many years ago, to providing detailed documentation of his recovery from a major operation.

In one sense, it's hard to be completely objective about this book, since I know Gordon Bell quite well. For example, I headed the review committee for the Gordon Bell Prize (a prize in the field of high-performance computing that he pioneered and personally funded) for several years, and in fact received as a co-author of a paper in 2008. Even so, I very much enjoyed this book. Gordon really has a great skill in telling a good story, and it is hard to come away from reading this without resolving to follow in his footsteps to be a lifelogger myself. I've already taken several steps...

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Apr 04, 2011

Keith Kendall rated it

As I began reading it soon felt like an infomercial. Thus, I set it aside for a few days. but later resumed because it is a topic I am very interested in. For the rest of the book, I used speed reading techniques.

As a boy I dreamed of having a computer in the basement. I imagined that I could put it together from scrap parts. I had no idea how I could pay for the air conditioning bill, but knew that I had to do it. I imagined that it could be doing complex computations that would no...moreAs I began reading it soon felt like an infomercial. Thus, I set it aside for a few days. but later resumed because it is a topic I am very interested in. For the rest of the book, I used speed reading techniques.

As a boy I dreamed of having a computer in the basement. I imagined that I could put it together from scrap parts. I had no idea how I could pay for the air conditioning bill, but knew that I had to do it. I imagined that it could be doing complex computations that would not be practical without a computer, and that it could work for hours or days on those problems while I was off doing other things.

The author of this book has a dream and he is living his dream, so I read with great interest his account of Total Recall, and MyLifeBits. I wondered if I could obtain a copy of the hardware/software that he is using. But after a bit of an Internet search I concluded that it does not exist as a commercial product.

The first two sections of the book detail his experiences in getting his pictures, email, paper documents, and electronic records from various places, including at least one former place of employment, all into his storage and recall system.

In the third and last section of the book, he admits that there are some concerns; data loss, backup, the mass of data storage require, but even more importantly, some concerns about recording and keeping everything. Privacy concerns of our own selves, and out of respect for others are part of it. Another part of it is that there are some things that we would rather forget because they are embarrassing, or unpleasant, or compromising. As a technologist, he feels that these problems are solvable. My feeling is that these problems will cause the adoption of this kind of technology to be slow.

It is easy to have the impression that the adoption of the recent technologies, such as the Internet was quite rapid, but like so many other technologies, it takes many years from inception, to early adopters, to easily useable, and then to mainstream. What he describes requires both hardware and software, which increases the cost, and they are not yet available in a single package, so, it will be quite a few years for this to become common.
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Aug 30, 2011

William Van rated it

Gordon Bell stands out as one of the most influential people in the history of computing. Unlike how it may seem at first glance, this book is not an infomercial for Microsoft. It is a series of well-meditated observations and extrapolations about what will happen to us as we're able to make the digital recording of practically everything we experience part of our permanent and immediately accessible e-memory.

For sure, there are some gaping holes in Bell's narrative, not the least of w...more

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Feb 01, 2010

Tina Ye rated it

Recommends it for: technology enthusiasts

Recommended to Tina by: Amazon

Shelves: non-fiction, technology

This work is part personal journal, part manifesto, and part self-help book. Essentially, Gordon Bell tries to make a good case for the "inevitable revolution" towards "Total Recall" (caps, mind you) that will "force" us to "adapt" to it. His diction gives you a good sense of what's to come, sigh.

If you can stomach his single-mindedly evangelical agenda, you'll find that this book pursues some interesting ideas about the implications of recordi...moreThis work is part personal journal, part manifesto, and part self-help book. Essentially, Gordon Bell tries to make a good case for the "inevitable revolution" towards "Total Recall" (caps, mind you) that will "force" us to "adapt" to it. His diction gives you a good sense of what's to come, sigh.

If you can stomach his single-mindedly evangelical agenda, you'll find that this book pursues some interesting ideas about the implications of recording as many details of one's life as possible. And not just in writing, but in photos, sound, video, drawings, scanned documents, GPS locations, chat logs, pedometer readings, etc. etc.

His primary argument is that we (as in the human race) are on an accelerating pathway towards this state of recording everything ever about our personal lives. He observes that we already have cultural/behavioral trends such as microblogging and increased "surveillance" of our offspring, and points out the sheer fact that we now have all the tools that enable logging, recording, and note-taking at our disposal.

He continues by saying we ought to embrace this trend because of a host of benefits in healthcare, education, national security, work, day-to-day life, and even post mortem. There are, undeniably, benefits that you can't argue with: detailed recordings of minute-to-minute physical status for health records can be invaluable in diagnosing a disease with vague symptoms. But there are thornier ideas too. For instance, Bell totally adores the idea of a "cyber-twin" that goes on "living" and pretending to be you after you die, so your grandkids can talk to "you." This simultaneously piques my curiosity and scares me silly, but the biggest part that bugs me is that he does not go on to explore it much beyond saying "Wouldn't that be SO COOL?" Clearly this is a book about breadth, not depth, and as such, it spends more time reveling in enthusiastic speculation rather than critique and inquiry. As usual, I kind of wish there were more of the latter.

Bell ends the book by providing general instructions on how you can begin recording every detail of your own life too (this is where the self-help comes in). Here's where his argument that "Total Recall" is upon us falls apart, I think. By detailing all the technological infrastructure required and all the ways we'd have to "adapt" to using it, he only highlights how tremendous a commitment it would be to "life-log." It would pretty much have to be a person's one and only hobby. Imagine scrapbooking, but times a million. And the money, wow, you would have to have a smartphone, a GPS device, a digital camera, a scanner, a PC, an e-reader, body-monitoring devices, backup solutions x3 both on- and off-site, shelves of DVDs... Life logging is clearly not for the busy or the poor.

Of course, I buy the idea that tools will get ever-cheaper and technological paradigms will rearrange themselves beyond recognition in 10 years, but this last part of the book, his clarion call to begin lifelogging here and now, still rings utterly hollow to me because we aren't 10 years in the future yet! It is, literally, the most useless chapter, because it isn't thorough enough to be actually instructive, nor does it introduce new ideas.

By this point, he has beaten us over the head with the idea that Total Recall is coming faster and surer than the Redcoats and it will make our lives absolutely wonderous. But he has also given the reader a lot to be skeptical about. Rather than spend an extra chapter tackling the skeptics head-on, he chooses to sidestep them by saying "well, there will always be skeptics, but let's ignore them, BECAUSE THE REVOLUTION IS UPON US. LET'S DO THIS THAAAANG."

Anyway.

My last point is more about a technical shortcoming on the book's part: Bell doesn't distinguish clearly enough between the problems of "recording" and "recall." There's a lot of time spent on the endless possibilities of recording, and hardly any on how to organize it effectively. He does recognize the issues of data longevity, the importance of metadata and the need to unify our data, but he doesn't address nearly enough how monumental the challenge of organizing a lifetime's data is. His only answer seems to be "keep at it, just do it." I wish he'd share more of what he learned in his personal experiences.

The final verdict: I think it is worth a read, if only for the impassioned arguments that will hopefully result from some of its claims. Insofar as a book of potentially controversial predictions about the future goes, this is pretty good.(less)

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Oct 04, 2010

Stephen rated it

Shelves: 2010-reads

I feel this book had a true bias, and motivation to spin e-memory as only positive. Unlike another recently read book called "Delete," "Total Recall" seems to only nod at the dangerous dilemma all cyber-users put themselves in. Yes, this ability to call up just about every aspect of one's life can be a good thing- but in an age of identity theft, internet stalking, social parasitic behavior- e-memory really only takes away from individualism and will remind us only of what is...more

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Jan 18, 2010

Stargrave rated it

Shelves: 2010

While this book presents an interesting topic, I didn't feel like there was enough unique information to really justify a "book". I guess it's up to each person if the price tag is worth it. The concept never really strays from what you might imagine from any readily available synopsis, but the author clearly believes in it, and hearing him go on about it is somewhat inspiring and intoxicating.

As for the idea, my main reservation from my own experience is that it needs to...moreWhile this book presents an interesting topic, I didn't feel like there was enough unique information to really justify a "book". I guess it's up to each person if the price tag is worth it. The concept never really strays from what you might imagine from any readily available synopsis, but the author clearly believes in it, and hearing him go on about it is somewhat inspiring and intoxicating.

As for the idea, my main reservation from my own experience is that it needs to be automatic. Fully and completely automatic. The parts of the book where he talks about systems for automatic life-logging I found interesting and attractive; but calling a service on my cell phone to make notes about what I'm doing or snapping pictures (consciously) of everything I see doesn't work from me.

My own blog, which isn't often updated, only works because I don't try to direct it. Times I have tried to blog with more frequency or give more of a chronicle (instead of my ruminations) end horribly, usually with me deleting everything. My whole life changes. I spend every moment judging things, thinking is this bloggable?, when will the next bloggable moment be?. Instead of what should I do next, what should I do to best complete or suit my blogged identity. So for me it has to be automatic or it won't work. I hate wasting my brain space trying to rate my life.

Which brings me to my next thought which is, if it were automatic, what do I really have to record anyway? I mean, not in a depressing way, but until I have kids, I basically have an occasional vacation. That's pretty much it. And these Yuki captures so well on pictures I don't really have anything to contribute. My life is basically reading books, watching movies, reading comics, watching TV series, playing video games, and all the while letting my mind wander on to speculations I find interesting. As soon as I try to write down these speculations, their nature distorts, or they're lost, or they stop coming, and it's only a few that work their way onto my notepad, cell phone memory, or computer--but heh that's how I like it. The only thing that would really be useful to me is something that could automatically snapshot whatever I was doing and the thought I was having whenever I had an interesting thought. But that seems a long way off. And unless some body signal of mine knows which thoughts are interesting or not (when even I seem not to) it would have a tough time choosing from the constant chatter.(less)

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Sep 21, 2009

The Conversation with Ross Reynolds Reynolds added it

Ross interviewed Jim Gemmell, co–author of "Total Recall," on the September 21, 2009 episode of "The Conversation."
Download the podcast here: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18454

In 1998, Gordon Bell began to digitally record as much of his life as possible. Today the technology makes it easier for everyone to track their lives. What is gained from having the specific data of your life recorded and at your disposal? How could data mining the facts of your l...more

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Dec 31, 2010

Clare rated it

Shelves: technology, knowledge, productivity-organisation

"The coming world of Total Recall will be as dramatic a change in the coming generation as the digital age has been for the present generation. It will change the way we work and learn. It will unleash our creativity and improve our health. It will change our intimate relationships with loved ones, both living and dead. It will, I believe, change what it means to be human.

This book is based heavily on Gordon Bell's experience with the MyLifeBits research project - a prototype syst...more

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May 22, 2010

Rita Kay added it

A peek into the future of storing memories so that our lives can be the subject of total recall for our heirs. While some memories are worth storing, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know every detail of my life. I am interested in getting rid of stacks of records that could be stored digitally, and I think health information that could be shared with physicians showing daily and even hourly changes might be helpful to health care providers.

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Oct 11, 2009

Lauren Albert rated it

Shelves: tech-internet-social-med

Gordon Bell decided one day to record everything--and I mean everything possible. He digitized documents, photos. He recorded conversations. He snapped pictures as he went about his life. This book is his take on the future of such endeavors. What could we do with all of this information--good and bad? What technologies could be developed to make use of it? Digital memory is of no use, he understands, without smarter searching. Interesting. 10/09

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Dec 19, 2010

Zacaro Caro rated it

Shelves: advice

This book like most nonfiction books was not a page turner for me. I found most of what was written to either not be applicable to my life or already in place as I have tried to digitize my life. This book gets three stars because it is something I'd recommend for many people.

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Aug 25, 2011

Luke Burrage rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, reviewed-on-the-sfbrp, started-but-not-finished

Kinda full review on my podcast, SFBRP #135.

I only read about 60% of this book, then skimmed it through to the end. Not what I was expecting at all. The ideas are fascinating, but the book is wishy washy futurism rather than anything meaningful to my life, nor is it as much as an exploration of Gordon Bell's life changing experiences.

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Apr 03, 2010

Ann rated it

This book is worth a skim, but there's not much meat. The idea of being able to save everything you ever read, see, peruse, hear in your life in some digital media is a little creepy. But I have to admit, if the search of this material will be as easy as the author suggests it would be awfully useful to remember people's names, what was discussed at what meeting etc. I would also love to have a resource like this for some of my great great grandparents. Still, it's creepy.

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Jun 28, 2010

Jim Myers rated it

Interesting exploration of tech tools to capture information that represents just the beginning of culture-changing possibilities to come in computer-aided personal memory archiving.

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Apr 17, 2010

Chad Stoller rated it

Shelves: 50-in-52

A definite must read if you are in the world of digital innovation. Total Recall is a boat load of inspiration for business and a great collection of insights into human memory.

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Jul 29, 2010

Ali Maggs rated it

A really interesting book filled with life-changing ideas, many of which I'm going to take on board. A shame there wasn't more examples from the project itself, as a lot of the examples felt a little like theory at times, but still really interesting and looking forward to seeing how the project that the book is based on emerges in real life products.

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Nov 26, 2010

Jim rated it

Quit this one early. Text is dedicated to the notion of capturing details of one's life. Some folk's included a camera attached to their head's nearly all the time. I erroneously thought it would be a how-to guide on organizing ones research and activities for recall.

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Jan 31, 2010

Kimm Lane rated it

Too weird for me to get very far into. Kinda scary really.

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Jul 19, 2010

Tim rated it

Shelves: biography, business, nerd, non-fiction, philosophy, science, technology

I was expecting more a more technical book. This book seems to be geared towards people who are not very familiar with technology. Granted, the appendix did have some technical information, but it would have been better had it been indexed to sections of the main text. In summary, I don't think that this book should have been 300 pages.

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Nov 17, 2010

Mohammad Shahab marked it as to-read

Shelves: arabic-translation

النسخة العربية

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May 02, 2010

Dax rated it

"Imagine a time in what you can sit in front of the computer and review every important information about yourself. And if you want more detail you can point and click - that detail will show up on screen (...), besides all other information about someone could have interest in, including the ones that are not available today.", Bill Gates, 1990. This time is coming fast and this book will give a good insight about the impacts of having an integral memory

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Jun 14, 2010

Jacinta rated it

Shelves: psych, organisation

very interesting, and now I have a ton of further resources to check out.

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Jul 20, 2010

Tim Middleton rated it

Not that taken with it really. But I do love Evernote!

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Feb 10, 2010

Ken rated it

nothing new that you don't already get from everday's newspaper reading

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Apr 08, 2010

dandye Dye added it

I just pre-ordered this on Amazon.

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Feb 02, 2012

Julius marked it as to-read

Jan 29, 2012

Patrick Nouhailler rated it

Jan 24, 2012

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