Total Recall

How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything

By: Gordon Bell, David James Gemmell

Narrated by: John Haag

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell tap their experiences with the MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research for this extraordinary book. What if you could remember everything? With today’s technology, that notion becomes more realistic each day. Bell and Gemmell explain what it could all mean.

©2009 Gordon Bell and David James Gemmell (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Bell and Gemmell outline the tests they've run since 2001, scanning and then cataloguing for retrieval a mass of personal data (documents, photographs, books and articles, web pages visited, instant messages, telephone calls) and wearing miniature cameras that sense light shifts and take automatic photographs. Readers will be wondering about the consequences of "recalling everything you once knew" long after they put down this fascinating text, of particular interest to techies, but clearly written for general readers." ( Publishers Weekly)

Interesting

Steve Jobs famously said of Microsoft "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste." As in no style, flair, design sense or artistic values. You could possibly say that about the author, as a Microsoft researcher. He is obviously a bit of a dag. I have chilling visions of my future total recall centre looking like Outlook, used to recall my exquisitely bland life.
That said - you don't need to be hip or stylish to have big ideas, and this book has big ideas. (And the author is obviously a nice guy.) Some technological points may be a few years outdated, but the problems he discusses have not been solved. I'm sure Gordon Bell will go down as a historical (or cult) figure. And I don't think you'll be able to write the currency of this book off for another 10 years at least. So if you're interested in the future of technology and the general subject grabs you, pick up this book.

Plenty of Food for Thought

When I decided to read this book I was looking for information that I did not find within it. The title "Total Recall" I had thought would bring forth information obout how in the future perhaps the average human could have recall similar to that of the famous savant Kim Peek. The book was not about that at all. If I had known who Gordon Bell was before starting this read I would have known that he would be speaking of recall with the use of the various electronic systems available,and what will in the near future come about. Being far from a Nerd the subject matter was foreiign to me. This is why I rated it only a three star. Once into the book I found it most interesting and worth while.

The future is almost here

I recommend this book to all gadget junkies, closet techies and organization adicts.

As I ran today listening to Total Recall on my smartphone with internet access, a camera, my planner and live links to facebook, twitter and linkedin, I ralized how close we already are to that technology.

If you want to stay anywhere near the cutting edge of technology or business or even life. This book is a must read.

Review of the first 3 chapters: Waste of time.

I'll be honest. I couldn't take more than the first few chapters. This seems to be a senior citizen with too much time & money predicting the recent past for a bunch of other senior citizens who are just now discovering how handy this "email" stuff is. If you know how to use a PC & have a Twitter or Facebook account, you probably already know more about e-memory than the author does. I'm sorry to be disrespectful but I'm tired of people like this wasting my time & money. Teach me something new or get out of the way.