Hey! I checked out your site and I found it really interesting. In terms of utility & implementation simplicity, I think focusing purely on digital prescence makes some sense. At the limit, if you were able to accurately model the continuation of a sequence of all inputs + the screen state + audio output of a computer, I think this might end up being a surprisingly powerful “general-purpose-human-simulator” (given how much the average person lives their lives through their screen). However, one thing that draws me to lifelogging-style video is the promise to capture the more subtle and poetic parts of being human (listening to the other conversations in a restaurant, laughing at the joke the barista makes when you order your coffee, etc). I think these aspects are what elevate simulator models from being something merely “economically useful” to something that begins to approach “continued existence” for the person being modeled.
I definitely share the concerns re data collection. US laws are generally lenient towards this type of video recording in public spaces (though it does vary by state). I worry more about the privacy implications (independently of legality) and how it would be possible to respect the rights of anyone that’s recording/is recorded, while also being able to use those recordings to do anything useful.
Hey! I checked out your site and I found it really interesting. In terms of utility & implementation simplicity, I think focusing purely on digital prescence makes some sense. At the limit, if you were able to accurately model the continuation of a sequence of all inputs + the screen state + audio output of a computer, I think this might end up being a surprisingly powerful “general-purpose-human-simulator” (given how much the average person lives their lives through their screen). However, one thing that draws me to lifelogging-style video is the promise to capture the more subtle and poetic parts of being human (listening to the other conversations in a restaurant, laughing at the joke the barista makes when you order your coffee, etc). I think these aspects are what elevate simulator models from being something merely “economically useful” to something that begins to approach “continued existence” for the person being modeled.
I definitely share the concerns re data collection. US laws are generally lenient towards this type of video recording in public spaces (though it does vary by state). I worry more about the privacy implications (independently of legality) and how it would be possible to respect the rights of anyone that’s recording/is recorded, while also being able to use those recordings to do anything useful.