More and more, whether we like it or not – our personal privacy is becoming less private. Anytime we sign up for a new app or account that asks us to create a username and password – our digital identity grows larger in the world. How many times a day are you deleting spam emails or notifications from whatever social media site you’re into? Whenever you’re searching the web or on social media – look at all the advertisements in the margins that are made relevant to your most recent desires and curiosities. It’s almost as if your mind was being read.
I’ve heard that “data is the new oil”. “Likes” on Facebook and Instagram and the number of our followers build on our social currency. We are headed deeper into an unfathomable digital domain. There’s billions to be made off the digital impression of who we are, our wants and needs, and our target market demographic. We are enabling “big brother” to have surgical precision into our private lives every time we login.
Reach over to sci-fi for a second, where in the mediocre Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica – the bereaved creator of the first Cylon (cybernetic lifeform node) takes all digital artifacts of his deceased daughter to create a hologram which eventually allows the chrome killer bots to transcend into a toaster with soul. The Japanese government is investing in the future of robots as a means to boost its ailing GDP.
I thought – what if I put milestones of my life into a spreadsheet? My life in Excel? What that translates into here is a visualization into a time continuum spanning generations. With a one-pager, I can tell my life story. I am risking more of my personal self to the digital future where algorithms can read the binary code that’s unique to me.
I will live forever as long as bits of my digital DNA are floating around out there.
Data, I heart you.