Foreword: computer tech, Internet, social control

[pynchonoid]

<http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/Solicitations/PIP_03-30.html>

[...] The Information Processing Technology Office
(IPTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) is soliciting proposals to develop an
ontology-based (sub)system that captures, stores, and
makes accessible the flow of one person’s experience
in and interactions with the world in order to support
a broad spectrum of associates/assistants and other
system capabilities.  The objective of this "LifeLog"
concept is to be able to trace the "threads" of an
individual's life in terms of events, states, and
relationships.   

Functionally, the LifeLog (sub)system consists of
three components: data capture and storage,
representation and abstraction, and data access and
user interface.  LifeLog accepts as input a number of
raw physical and transactional data streams.  Through
inference and reasoning, LifeLog generates multiple
layers of representation at increasing levels of
abstraction.  The input data streams are abstracted
into sequences of events and states, which are
aggregated into threads and episodes to produce a
timeline that constitutes an "episodic memory" for the
individual.  Patterns of events in the timeline
support the identification of routines, relationships,
and habits.  Preferences, plans, goals, and other
markers of intentionality are at the highest level.   

LifeLog is interested in three major data categories:
physical data, transactional data, and context or
media data.  “Anywhere/anytime” capture of physical
data might be provided by hardware worn by the LifeLog
user.  Visual, aural, and possibly even haptic sensors
capture what the user sees, hears, and feels.  GPS,
digital compass, and inertial sensors capture the
user’s orientation and movements.  Biomedical sensors
capture the user’s physical state.  LifeLog also
captures the user’s computer-based interactions and
transactions throughout the day from email, calendar,
instant messaging, web-based transactions, as well as
other common computer applications, and stores the
data (or, in some cases, pointers to the data) in
appropriate formats.  Voice transactions can be
captured through recording of telephone calls and
voice mail, with the called and calling numbers as
metadata.  FAX and hardcopy written material (such as
postal mail) can be scanned.  Finally, LifeLog also
captures (or at least captures pointers to) the
tremendous amounts of context data the user is exposed
to every day from diverse media sources, including
broadcast television and radio, hardcopy newspapers,
magazines, books and other documents, and softcopy
electronic books, web sites, and database access.   

LifeLog can be used as a stand-alone system to serve
as a powerful automated multimedia diary and
scrapbook.  By using a search engine interface, the
user can easily retrieve a specific thread of past
transactions, or recall an experience from a few
seconds ago or from many years earlier in as much
detail as is desired, including imagery, audio, or
video replay of the event.  In addition to operating
in this stand-alone mode, LifeLog can also serve as a
subsystem to support a wide variety of other
applications, including personal, medical, financial,
and other types of assistants, and various teaching
and training tools.  As increasing numbers of people
acquire LifeLogs, collaborative tasks could be
facilitated by the interaction of LifeLogs, and
properly anonymized access to LifeLog data might
support medical research and the early detection of an
emerging epidemic.  Application of the LifeLog
abstraction structure in a synthesizing mode will
eventually allow synthetic game characters and
humanoid robots to lead more "realistic" lives. 
However, the initial LifeLog development is tightly
focused on the stand-alone system capabilities, and
does not include the broader class of assistive,
training, and other applications that may ultimately
be supported.   

LifeLog technology will support the long-term IPTO
vision of a new class of truly "cognitive" systems
that can reason in a variety of ways, using
substantial amounts of appropriately represented
knowledge; can learn from experiences so that their
performance improves as they accumulate knowledge and
experience; can explain their actions and can accept
direction; can be aware of their own behavior and
reflect on their own capabilities; and can respond in
a robust manner to surprises. [...] 

<http://www.msnbc.com/news/921192.asp?0cv=TB10&cp1=1>

DOD seeks way to record all of life 	  
Everything from heartbeats to Net chats would be
monitored 

By Michael J. Sniffen
ASSOCIATED PRESS	  
  	  	WASHINGTON, June 2 —  Coming to you soon from
the Pentagon: the diary to end all diaries — a
multimedia, digital record of everywhere you go and
everything you see, hear, read, say and touch. Known
as LifeLog, the project has been put out for
contractor bids by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, or DARPA, the agency that helped
build the Internet and that is now developing the next
generation of anti-terrorism tools. 	

[...] But John Pike of Global Security.org, a defense
analysis group, is dubious the project has military
application.
       “I have a much easier time understanding how
Big Brother would want this than how (Defense
Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld would use it,” Pike said.
“They have not identified a military application.”
[...] 






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