Taking a dump 21st Century style.

Gordon Bell (Source: Gizmodo)

Every time Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell takes a dump he learns something about himself. For instance, he know knows that he's visited 221,173 web sites in the last 8 years, and written or received 156,041 emails. He also knows how well his heart is pumping, how many miles he's walked, where he's been, and even with whom he's spoken and visited. In fact, from what most of us consider a waste product, Bell can even decipher how many songs he's listened to, and see pictures videos of the places he's been and the things he's seen.

Fantastic as this may sound, Bell is not the only person on earth who can do this. The same product is flushed from nearly every person every day in North America, and other industrialized nations. More significantly, while most of us are ignorant or deny the very possibility, the government and large corporations are secretly extracting much the same information from each of us that Bell collects himself.

SenseCam (Source: Microsoft)

What bell flushes he calls MyLifeBits. It's a Microsoft Research project inspired by an idea that dates back to 1945. The modern iteration of the memory index (memex) uses a variety of ever-shrinking devices to capture, store, and index an individual's daily life into what some call a lifelog.

To some extent, many of of us have become lifeloggers through a variety of mechanisms including blogs and social networking. What's notably different about Bell's approach, compared to social networking, life-streaming, life-blogging, or what Toronto Professor Steve Mann has termed Sousveillance, is that MyLifeBits is a personal storage and indexing mechanism, as opposed to a social interaction or broadcast. It is, if you will, a diary of perspective, but not of opinion.

Whereas social networks provide a platform for one to share thoughts, experiences, feelings, opinions and emotions with others, Bell's objective appears to be a personal one, devoid of any of these attributes. Few, if carefully considered, would argue that social networks produce factual content. To the contrary, these memes allow individuals to represent themselves, not as they are, but as they might like the world, or even just a few individuals, to see them--at least, at that moment.

About Jeff M. Fischbach

Jeff Michael Fischbach is founder and President of SecondWave Information Systems (SecondWave.com), a consulting firm specializing in Forensic Technology. Since 1994, he has served as a board member and technology adviser to numerous professional organizations and corporations. Mr. Fischbach has been engaged as a litigation consultant and Forensic Examiner, offering expert advice and oversight on matters involving intellectual property, computers, information systems, satellite, tracking and wireless communications technologies. He has advised law enforcement, foreign government representatives, judges, lawyers and the press.