IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 6

But I have often wondered where these individuals
have drawn the line - at which occasions they choose
to "switch off" the camera, and why [14].
This glogging still does not satisfy the possibility
that I might be able to retain and indeed download all
my thoughts for retrieval later [15].
A series of still photographs and continuous footage
does help me to remember people I've met, things I've
shared, knowledge I've gained, and feelings I've experienced. However, lifelogging is limited and cannot record
the thoughts I have had at every moment in my life.
In addition, there is an innate problem with recording all my thoughts automatically with some kind of
futuristic digital neural network: I would not want
every thought I have ever had to be recorded [16].
Let's face it, no-one is perfect and sometimes we
think silly things that we would never want stored,
shared with others or replayed back to us [17].
These are thoughts which are apt to be misconstrued or misinterpreted, even perhaps in an e-court.
We also do and say things at times which may not
be criminal but are not the best practice for family,
friends, colleagues, or even strangers to witness.
And there are those moments of heartbreak and
horror alike that we would never wish to replay for
reasons we might be overcome with grief and become
chronically depressed.
The beginning and end of Ingmar Bergman's film
Persona is reminiscent of a longitudinal glog [18]. See
also "The Entire History of You" in the Black Mirror [16] available for download at https://archive.org/
details/BlackMirror-Series. Directed by Brian Welsh
and written by Jesse Armstrong and Charlie Brooker,
the movie depicts the future, thanks to the "Grain,"
a chip which can be implanted on a hard drive in the
brain, with every single action that a person makes
being recorded and played back at a later time.

Is More Than Human Better?
Evolving in ways that could better our lives can only
be a good thing. But evolving to a stage where we
humans become something other than human could
be less desirable.
Dangers could include:
■ electronic viruses,
■ virtual crimes (such as getting your e-life deleted,
rewritten, rebooted, or stolen),
■ having your freedom and autonomy hijacked because
you are at the mercy of so called smart grids.
Whatever the likelihood of these potentialities, they too,
together with all of the positives, need to be interrogated.
Ultimately we need to be extremely careful that
any artificial intelligence we invite into our bodies
does not submerge the human consciousness and, in
doing so, rule over it.

6

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Remember, in Mary Shelley's 1816 novel Frankenstein, it is Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist, who
emerges as the true monster, not the giant who wreaks
havoc when he is rejected.

Acknowledgment
"The author would like to thank her fellow collaborator Dr. MG Michael, an honorary associate professor
at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, for
his insights and valuable input on the initial draft of
this article.
This article was first published under the title
"People plus: Is transhumanism the next stage in our
evolution?" in The Conversation, Oct. 29, 2012. The
original article can be found at https://theconversation.
com/people-plus-is-transhumanism-the-next-stagein-our-evolution-9771.

References

[1] W. Gibson, Neuromancer. New York, NY: Ace, 1984.
[2] A. de Grey, "A roadmap to end aging," TED, 2007; https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ/.
[3] Transhumanist Declaration, 2012, humanity+; http://humanityplus.
org/philosophy/transhumanist-declaration/.
[4] K. Michael and M.G. Michael. "Homo Electricus and the continued
speciation of humans," in The Encyclopaedia of Information Ethics
and Security, 1st ed. M. Quigley, Ed. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2007,
pp. 312-318.
[5] K.D. Stephan, K. Michael, M.G. Michael, L. Jacob, and E. Anesta,
2012, "Social Implications of Technology: Past, Present, and Future"
Proc. IEEE, vol. 100, no. 13, pp. 1752-1781, 2012; http://ieeexplore.
ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=06187687.
[6] S. Mann, "Wearable computing," in The Encyclopedia of HumanComputer Interaction, 2nd ed, M. Soegaard and D. RikkeFriis, Eds.
Aarhus, Denmark: Interaction Design Foundation, 2013; http://www.
interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/wearable_computing.html/.
[7] S. Mann, "Through the glass, lightly," IEEE Technology & Society
Mag., vol. 2, pp. 10-14, 2012.
[8] "Project Glass: One day...", Google, 2012; http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4/.
[9] Map my tracks blog, Map My Tracks, 2010; http://www.
mapmytracks.com/blog/entry/new-feature-street-view-and-googleearth-fly-through-bring-your-activities-to-life/.
[10] G. Bell, Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, 2013; http://research.
microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/.
[11] C. Gurrin, Lecturer at Dublin City University, 2013; http://www.
computing.dcu.ie/~cgurrin/.
[12] D. Roy, "The birth of a word," TED; http://www.ted.com/talks/
deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.
[13] K. Michael and K. Miller, "Big data: New opportunities and new
challenges," IEEE Computer, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 22-24, 2013.
[14] K. Michael and M.G. Michael, "No limits to watching?," Commun.ACM, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 26-28, 2013.
[15] S. Mann, "MetaSpaceglasses now available to CYBORGloggers
interested in becoming AR developers," glogger.mobi; http://glogger.
mobi/, accessed Apr. 22, 2014.
[16] C. Brooker, "Episode 3 - The entire history of you," Black
Mirror, 2011; http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/
4od#3327868.
[17] M.G. Michael and K. Michael, "The fallout from emerging technologies: On matters of surveillance, social networks, and suicide,"
IEEE Technology and Society Mag., vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 13-17, 2011.
[18] I. Bergman, Persona, 1966; https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=vMfqSuRlerU.
[19] Inside cover art, Frankenstein, 1831 ed; http://www.archive.org/
details/ghostseer01schiuoft; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/b/bc/Frankenstein.1831.inside-cover.jpg.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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SUMMER 2014

https://theconversation https://www http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ/ http://humanityplus http://ieeexplore http://www.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=06187687 https://www.archive.org/ http://www http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/wearable_computing.html/ http://www.youtube http://www http://www.mapmytracks.com/blog/entry/new-feature-street-view-and-google http://research http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/ http://www http://computing.dcu.ie/~cgurrin/ http://www.ted.com/talks/ http://glogger http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/ https://www.youtube.com/ http://www.archive.org/ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014