We store fragments of our lives on social networks, in the cloud, our phones abound with images…
By: Joanna Bbn
Tags: Virtual Reality, Memories, Emotions, Photos, Life

Index Real Life By Means of Virtual Memories

Image credit SurfsUp/Shutterstock.com

We store fragments of our lives on social networks, in the cloud, our phones abound with images and videos. But are these times real and pure? Do they grasp the real feeling? Is that what we want to remember as we move forward? Of course, we like to watch them, try to relive the moments of joy, happiness, and even sadness.

What I see online, what people share with the outside world, what my friends share with me, and what I share with my friends are controlled moments.

As much as we want and try, we are unable to grasp the ideal moment of emotion.

I enjoy watching videos taken at my wedding, but these are moments taken from someone else’s perspective, seen through someone else’s eyes. I want to view and remember these moments as seen with my own eyes, I want to see the faces I saw then, the details I noticed myself, the intimate talks I had with my guests. These are the things that would help me live again the moments and feel the feelings as they were. These are times when I wanted to say time, please stop. Stay with me a while longer.

We don’t have a time-freezing device; to build one, I think it continues to be a SF movie topic. But I think we should explore how we store and remember the moments of our lives. We have Virtual Reality devices, Augmented Reality devices that assist us in trying to imagine ourselves in places we cannot reach or contexts we cannot find ourselves in.

I wish for a Virtual Memories device. A device that stores my memories like I experienced them. A device that can freeze any moment I want and play it back to me whenever I feel a desire for a previous moment in my life. A device that gives me pure and accurate details of the moment I want and by relieving it, helps me to feel the feeling I once felt. This device follows me everywhere and whenever there is an emotion in my gut, it captures the moment for me to relieve at my own choice.

Are we nowhere near such a device? I think it’s not that far away. I feel as if I have already forgotten so many moments which have defined who I am. So many moments of pure emotions, so many moments with people that are gone and I wish to relive. Maybe relive the last conversation, go to a lunch we had together, enjoy that moment of laughter. I have no desire to live in the past. I want new experiences, new memories, to live in the present and for the future. But sometimes, in order for the present to feel good, we need to remind ourselves of past experiences.

Little adjustments to virtual reality could do it. We have voice-controlled apps that can start and stop the recording, we have unlimited cloud storage to save the recordings, we have algorithms to detect and assess emotions. What is missing is to get them all to use Virtual Memories in a way and start indexing the actual moments of our lives.

Thinking about the Virtual Memories device reminds me of Dumbledore’s Pensieve. We still need some magic in our lives throughout the digital transformation we’re all a part of.