Humans have long worked to document their lives, inventing gadgets to
aid in writing and recording, concepts and conventions to make what we
say meaningful and comparable, and social institutions to let us coordinate
in monitoring and verifying our documentation. It is harder to lie, and so
to self-deceive, about documented events. [...]
Many lament, and some celebrate (Brin, 1998), a coming ‘‘surveillance
society.’’ Most web pages and email are already archived, and it is now
feasible and cheap for individuals to make audio recordings of their entire
lives. It will soon be feasible to make full video recordings as well. Add to
this recordings by security cameras in stores and business, and most physical
actions in public spaces may soon be a matter of public record. Private
spaces will similarly be a matter of at least private record.
Robin Hanson makes a similar prediction in ‘Enhancing Our Truth Orientation’ (pp. 362-363):