Future Fictions: Memories

Here’s a challenging short video: as we store more and more of the memories of our lives digitally – how might our digital ego be affected by choosing to delete those memories? Various media have explored the idea of deleting our own memories – from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to the TV series Dollhouse – but the phenomenon of whole sale cataloging of our live digitally is new enough that it hasn’t deeply penetrated culture yet. I’ve come across situations where people have effectively digitally wiped themselves from the web. And, for me, it was…

Here’s a challenging short video: as we store more and more of the memories of our lives digitally – how might our digital ego be affected by choosing to delete those memories?

Various media have explored the idea of deleting our own memories – from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to the TV series Dollhouse – but the phenomenon of whole sale cataloging of our live digitally is new enough that it hasn’t deeply penetrated culture yet. I’ve come across situations where people have effectively digitally wiped themselves from the web. And, for me, it was almost as if they had died. While, in both cases, I’d met the person physically many times, the relationships and the chances for meeting up, were mediated through the internet. The erasure of their digital presence rendered their physical presence inaccessible to me.

Our digital egos are functioning representations of ourselves. And deleting them is some analogy of murder.