The Entire History of You… You… And You.
The Entire History of You is so jokes. It’s probably the funniest Black Mirror episode. I feel like at this rate, if people wanted it to happen, it can totally happen. I mean, with the way we interact with screens and the way cameras are going, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if a company develops this prototype of a “grain” to record our memories — just like Go Pros and other cameras do (see Snapchat’s Spectacles), but with complete full access to these recordings via our brains or something.
So in a way, it’s kind of happening? Minus the whole, it hooks up to your brain and you can replay it with your eyeballs. Because that’s what people do. They record and document their memories. In more ways this time around, given the features of social media. Now memories are time-stamped and super accessible. You can replay them — relive them in a way. Even text message convos are a documented form of memories. And yeah, this can definitely cause issues in relationships, just like in the episode (LOL).
Ever had a friend (or you) that had a significant other, only to catch a glimpse of their hand on their friend’s snap story? But you can’t be sure, so you re-watch it over and over again, until you’re like, “that’s definitely them, that’s their hand, why are they in a club? They said they were at home sleeping????” Or you scroll through Instagram and notice the activity. Someone you’re trying to date tells you a sweet goodnight, only for you to notice them liking some other person’s photo at 2am?! They said they were going to sleep!! Or the classic, you’re into someone, and they’re totally over their ex, but you go on their Facebook and they have albums upon albums of memories with this person? Or maybe, they had this whole story about a promotion at work so they take a business trip, only to post a picture of their brunch… BUT THE LOCATION TAG IS IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CITY? Basically you know information you would have never known had it not been for these social media platforms, technology, and people’s constant knack to document and record memories. But now you can question people, and have the hard (usually visual) evidence to back it up — time stamped and everything! Just like in the episode! And if these thoughts never crossed your mind, then good on you! You’re soul must be pure. And if these have then, lol welcome to 2017, I’m sure there are others just like you!
So how far away are we from this idea of people having a ‘grain’ to record our memories and have it hooked up to our brain? I couldn’t tell you, because I am no engineer. But with the way some people interact with social media as if it’s a live library — a place where we document our memories and life, or just the fact that they like to document their own life, you could really argue, we aren’t that far from this ‘grain’ idea.
The only way to stop the ‘grain’ from becoming reality, is to stop innovating! Stop being creative! But we’re humans so that will never happen. Technology will advance whether we can keep up with it or not. And people will always record their memories, in one way or another. Whether it be through an actual photograph, digital file from their drone, video reels of their vacation, Snapchats, Facebook/Instagram Live, Blogs, text messages… we love documenting our history and there is always a record of it somewhere — the cloud, the device, the internet! It’s great. It’s jokes. It can be entertaining if you let it.
