Total recall: how the e-memory revolution will change everything

What if you never had to forgot anything? Trends in storage, sensing and computing will bring about an e-memory revolution in the next 10 years that will enable you to record as much of your life as want, in previously unimaginable detail. Everything you see and hear, every step you take, every heartbeat, all of it could be captured digitally. You could have Total Recall. Total Recall will revolutionize our  health, our learning, and our productivity. It will change the story we pass on to posterity, taking us to a level of “digital immortality.” The consequences to society will be profound: some good and some bad. But good or bad, our experience with the MyLifeBits research project and the CARPE research community has convinced us that the e-memory revolution is inevitable.

Total Recall books will be available for purchase onsite provided by Kepler’s bookstore.

Presenter(s)

Gordon Bell has been a principal researcher at Microsoft Research since 1995. He is the former vice president of research and development at Digital Equipment Corporation (1960-1983); professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University (1966-72); founding assistant director of the National Science Foundation's Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate (1986-1988); panel chair of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) for creating the Internet (1987-1988); advisor/investor to 100+ High Tech start-up companies (1983- ); and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. He has written several books about computer architecture and High Tech Ventures (1991) with John McNamara describing the Bell Mason Diagnostic. He is a member of the Bell Mason Group that consults on starting corporate ventures.

Gordon created ACM’s Gordon Bell Prize in 1987 to acknowledge and reward progress in parallel processing. He is a fellow of the ACM, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, IEEE, NAE, NAS, and 1991 National Medal of Technology medalist.

Jim Gemmell is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, currently working on the next generation of search. Previously, Jim's research focus was MyLifeBits, part of the CARPE research community, whose first and second workshops he was proud to chair. Jim has also done research on the topics of personal media management/enhancement, telepresence, and reliable multicast. His research has led to features in Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Bing.com. He lives in the San Francisco area.