Life caching II

Oh man, is this pure coincidence or when you focus your thoughts on a certain subject, object, maybe person, everything, down to the details, becomes more apparent?

Another friend commented on the fragility of digital life caching. Isn't it even scarier when the trend into the future is toward cloud computing, when data are stored on giant servers somewhere in the world instead of on our own local drives?

Isn't it scary, or if viewed through an optimistic lens, interesting, that the "digital cloud" age may undo the purpose of life caching, bringing us back to zero?

We log significant events we have so that we can own, keep track of and impart those moments, stories and experiences to future generations. So with the convenient, accurate, wonderfully precise technology that enables us to shoot and preserve true-to-life accounts, as human nature dictates, the average person will not resist to record more.

So we're running out of local storage space or the exercise of data backup is putting a strain on our already hectic lives cuz we need to play so many roles today even though we still have the same 24 hours that the cavemen did.

So voila, "cloud computing" takes off. Google says you'll never have to delete an email again. Hotmail says we'll give you 5 more gigabytes of storage, Yahoo! says we'll match that ... when will this end?

Of course the consumers - you and I - won't complain. The more the merrier! Now I can store all my digital files on those FREE online spaces! YIPPIE!!

Yippie? Think again. How many times do we ever revisit our terabytes of photos, videos, emails, conversations, diaries ... ? Do we even remember which exist where? Are we likely to "stumble upon" any of them like my friend did upon the postcard from El Paso dated 25.08.01?

They are more likely to fade into insignificance. What we have cached will be uncached by the very act of over-caching.

Uh-huh.