Here is an great article by Ian McDonald at BBC for everyone interested in science fiction in general and especially lifelogging (2) and the concept of beta level simulations as described in some of Alastair Reynolds’ novels:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7885803.stm
The bottom line is that if you want to become immortal, better don’t take privacy too serious.
Everyone who engages alot with the metaverse basically leaves a copy of himself, or currently rather a sketch, as an imprint on the metaverse. It’s just a matter of context, drawing the right correlation and connections to be able to listen and talk to this trace of youself.
As the web gets more sophisticated and intelligent, and the complexity of contextual information grows, there may come a time when this simulacrum that you created deliberately or rather unintentional, will acquire a level of sophistication that it will act as an nearly perfect answering machine regarding any like and dislike, emotion, value, want and most memories that make you yourself.
Closley relating this topic may be a recent essay by Susan Blackmore at Edge titled ARTIFICIAL, SELF-REPLICATING MEME MACHINES which is an answer to the annual question of 2009 ”What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?”.
I’m a 26 year old German 