Response 3 – JasonD

Autobotography, This is a subject that has been touched on across many genres of entertainment and speculation. The concept of recording one’s life or actions, and then allowing others to share in it. The concept of a cyber-identity is not new to me and was actually a practice of mine for several years. From middle school through high school, my presence was at its greatest online. I’ve managed forums, built websites, chatted across the world. I had a persistent existence within the virtual world Second Life.

There are times in which I worry that my history will catch up with me. Once the internet has something from you, you cannot give it up. Privacy is something that you have to consider to be nonexistant if you wanted to try and make any interactions. I am no hacker, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about covering my tracks.

The internet is one massive autobotography. It is touched by millions of minds. Each one has their own ideas, beliefs, memories, emotions, kinks, and peculiarities. The internet allows the people to either put on a mask or take one off. That is the nature of a tool.

There is an anime, that will be coming out in live version this March, called Ghost in the Shell. It is an absolutely amazing series of stories in which many of the concepts here and more are touched on. It is interesting to think of the analog world from the perspective of a digital mindset. Blending the two is an entirely different one. How often does one consider their physical possessions to be memory files? We keep things to remember things and hold on to them to hold onto the memory. They can be called Mnemonics. I call them external memories.

So then we take another step deeper into the rabbit hole. It can be argued that a person is the sum of their memories. Hitler would not be the man he was if he grew up a different life. I believe I could be an entirely different person if I grew up with a different life. That life, cumulates into memories which serve me in my decision making and ability to predict future outcomes. For it is only from what we have seen before can we see what will be. Whether we saw ourselves do it, or watched someone else. So who is to say that all my memories couldn’t become a person?

I strongly believe in our cyber future. As we become more blended with our technology, we will discover new ideas, philosophies and become exposed to other thoughts and emotions. The deeper the cyberization, the deeper the connection. It won’t be until we feel the tears of a mother to realize the pain and suffering imposed by war. It has always been my belief that the Internet is the foundation for a future of interconnections. It can bridge emotional depths, and help make sense of the diversity of the world.

But so, this has been said about the telephone, telegraph, writing, and even language itself. Wishful thinking aside, these are all merely tools.

Another example of autobotography that I have recently become aware of is a story about Jamie Livingston taking a polaroid photograph every day for 25 years. The very use of a polaroid camera is a documentation of memories. You can go through this man’s life right to his death. I would not doubt that if you went through all of those snapshots, that Jamie would live inside of you. Having seen life through his lens, and his eyes, you’d catch things he had seen, things that have shaped him through life.

For many, I think the concept of Autobotography is a foundation to eternal life. By instilling one’s memories inside of a new shell, they would go on living. I suppose in a sense this is true. I find it hard to believe. Can you really transfer a consciousness? Too many questions on that one. It is my personal belief that we as a person live inside this squishy sponge in a helmet. The only way the I that is me can live, is if that squishy sponge is transferred to another helmet. Simply copying my memories will not transfer me.  My memories would become the foundation for another life. Fast Track parenting. The me, that is I, within my helmet, would die. From that point on, we would be different people. I would have experienced an end. They will not have. Eternal life at this point and time, is unreachable. Even if we could encompass an entire person’s life experiences within the most advanced computer. They would still be a new person.

So what does Autobotography really entail? Is it the modern method of achieving an old style immortality? The internet does not forget. By putting yourself into cyberspace you give up all rights to your information. In cases such as the Jennie Cam, or even Jamie Livingston, the internet will curate your life. The memories that you chose to share become the memories of the internet. Like people in an assisted living center, we bumble about in the halls until we stumble into a room. That room holds memories, ideas, philosophies, emotions. Some of those things we can stand, and others we cannot. Perhaps it is other memories we have to experience before we can handle other memories.

Perhaps the internet is already alive. Perhaps it exists and knows already what we would do if we found it. It has enough examples. If I were a newborn sentience within this human-made web of memories, I would be afraid too. Perhaps that is what makes the concept of autobotography unsettling. While it takes an age old practice of converting memories into hard media it allows those recordings to be instantly shareable and accessible. We have always been able to convert memories to words, pictures, photos, or videos. It was the ability to share them that has changed.