Science fiction writer Charlie Stross has given a lot more thought than most to the changes that we may experience in the next few tens of years. Ubiquitous GPS is going to a standard feature on most cell phones by the end of the year. We are nowhere near the level of information storage density that is feasible – the first half of our lives is being sketchily and disparately recorded – the next half will so well recored that our every waking second will be available for collation and review. People are already creating email addresses for their unborn children. So:
Meet your descendants. They don’t know what it’s like to be involuntarily lost, don’t understand what we mean by the word “privacy”, and will have access (sooner or later) to a historical representation of our species that defies understanding. They live in a world where history has a sharply-drawn start line, and everything they individually do or say will sooner or later be visible to everyone who comes after them, forever. They are incredibly alien to us.
