A kind of software to load every photo you take， every letter you write—in fact your every memory and experience—into a surrogate① brain that never forgets anything， New Scientist can reveal. It is part of a curious venture dubbed the MyLifeBits project， in which engineers are aiming to build multimedia databases that chronicle people’s life events and make them searchable.
Our memories often deceive us： experiences get exaggerated； we muddle the timing of events and simply forget stuff. Much better to junk such unreliable interpretations and instead build a faithful memory on that most reliable of entities②， the PC.
Engineers developed MyLifeBits as a surrogate brain to solve what they call the “giant shoebox problem”. “In a giant shoebox full of photos， it’s hard to find what you are looking for. Add to this the reels of home movies， videotapes， bundles of letters and documents we file away， and remembering what we have， let alone finding it， becomes a major headache.
Logging life
Everything he possibly logged onto MyLifeBits database.
Apart from official documents like passport， everything from letters and photos can be posted to home videos and work documents. All email is automatically saved on the system， as is anything he reads or buys online. He has also started recording phone conversations and meetings to store as audio files. However， the privacy and corporate security risks are clear.
Of course， the system takes up a huge amount of memory. But， within five years， a 1，000-gigabyte③ hard drive will cost less than 300─and that is enough to store four hours of video every day for a year.
Each media file saved in MyLifeBits can be tagged with a written or spoken commentary④ and linked to other files. Spoken annotations⑤ are also converted into text， so the speech is searchable， too.
To recall a period in the past， just type in the interesting dates he is interested in. MyLifeBits then calls up a timeline of phone and email conversations， things he has read and any images he recorded. The system can also be used to build narratives involving other people， events or places. Searching for the name of a friend would bring together a chronological⑥ set of files describing when you both did things together， for instance.
Meeting the ancestors
Although MyLifeBits is essentially a large database， it could gradually become a repository for many of our experiences. Now that many mobile devices contain photomessaging cameras， you could save everyday events onto the system. Users will eventually be able to keep every document they read， every picture they view， all the audio they hear and a good portion of what they see.
For some people， especially those with memory problems， MyLifeBits will become a surrogate memory that is able to recall past experiences in a way not possible with the familiar but disparate records like photo albums and scrapbooks⑦.
A really accurate， searchable store of events could also help us preserve our experiences more vividly for posterity. MyLifeBits called avatars and other types of digital “life” and the system could eventually form the basis for “meet the ancestor” style educational tools， where people will quiz their ancestors on what happened in their lifetimes.
The system like MyLifeBits was first suggested in 1945. It created an infinite personal archive by the emerging digital computer. The ideas also inspired the Internet archive website.
① surrogaten. 代理者；代理人
② entityn. 实体
③ gigabyten. ［电脑］十亿字节；十亿位组
④ commentaryn. (对某一著作)系统的注释(或评注)
⑤ annotationn. 注解，注释
⑥ chronologicaladj. 依时间前后排列而记载的
⑦ scrapbookn. 剪贴簿\[C\]
把生活装在一张磁盘上
一种软件，它可加载你的每张相片和你写的每封信—事实上，你的每一段回忆和经历都被放进一个永远不会忘记任何事件的代理大脑里。
它是一个被称作“我的生活片段”奇特创业项目的一部分，其中，旧金山的微软媒体实验室的工程师正致力于建立多媒体数据库用来记录人们生活事件而且便于人们查找”。
我们的记忆时常欺骗我们，我们不但夸大经历，还搞错事件发生的时间，而且完全忘记具体细节。有了这种软件好多了，人们可以扔掉这类不可靠的解释，改成在最可靠的实体—个人计算机上建立起忠实的记忆。
工程师把“我的生活片段”软件系统作为代理大脑，用来解决他们称作“庞大的鞋盒似的问题。”“在庞大的装满相片的鞋盒中，很难发现你想找的东西。”加上一盘盘的家庭电影、录像带的胶片以及成捆的信件和文件，我们在寻找东西时费劲地回忆我们拥有的东西，不说能够找到它，寻找东西的整个过程简直变成了不小的一个麻烦。
记录生活
每件事都能被记录在“我的生活片段”数据库上。
除了像护照这样官方文件之外，还可把从信和照片到家庭录像带及工作文件都记载在数据库上。所有的电子邮件是自动存在系统里的，一如在线所读过或所买过的东西也自动保留一样。还可以音频文件记录电话谈话和会议实况。不过，这样做容易暴露隐私和公司安全。
当然，系统占据了极大的储存空间。但是，在五年之内，一个 1，000个十亿字节的硬盘将会花费不到300美元——而且一年内那足够每天储存四个小时的图像。
每个保存在“我的生活片段”中的媒体文件都会被贴上标签或配上一段语音并且和其他文件连接。语音注解也被转换成文本，因此这种演讲也是可查寻的。
要回忆过去的某一个生活时期，仅仅键入一些他感兴趣的日期就可以。然后“我的生活片段”软件就回忆起打电话、发邮件谈话、读过的文章以及录像的画面的时间表。系统还可以被用来记录包括其他人、事件或地方的情况。例如，搜索朋友的名字会带出一个按年代排的一套文件，这些文件描述你和朋友曾经一起做过的事情。
与祖先会面
尽管，“我的生活片段”软件基本上就是一个庞大的数据库，但是，它可能渐渐会变成为我们许多生活经历的储存库，既然移动产品有了摄像机，你可以把每天发生的事件储存在该软件系统中。用户将最终能够把读过的每一份文件，看过的每一张图片，听过的所有音频信号以及看过的某一段华章锦句保存下来。
对一些人来说，特别是记忆有问题的人来说，“我的生活片段”软件将成为代替的记忆，它能够回忆过去的生活经历，而该软件的记忆功能是照片簿和剪贴簿这些我们熟悉但零散的纪录方式所无法相比的。
一种真正准确的，日后又便于查找的事件储存还可以为我们的子孙后代更鲜明生动地保存我们的生活经历。“我的生活片段”被称作‘人的化身和其他数字化生活’”，系统可以最后为“与祖先会面”教育性工具建立基础，人们可以用它考查他们祖先的一生曾经发生过什么。
“我的生活片段”软件系统是在1945年首次被提出，它用数字电脑创建无限私人档案。这个主意也启发了英特网文档网站。
