It wouldn't exist in reality, only digitally, but it would include a very specific, very interesting (to me, at least) feature: Wherever you've walked, driven, flown, sailed, trained, etc., the map would record the exact path of the trip and place a red footprint or blue tire mark or a green flight path on the page. So ultimately, you'd end up with a sort of heat map of the precise places you've set foot on this earth (as well as the modes of transportation you used to get there).
What fascinates me most about this idea would be seeing the disparity between the marks placed near your home (naturally a high volume of footprints, tire tracks, etc.) compared to somewhere you've only been once -- like that open field you traveled to and played touch football or a random concert hall on the west coast. It could take hours to explore your own map, and, literally, re-trace your footsteps.
There's bound to be one little speck of a spot that's not filled in on your front doorstep. After all the times you've trekked in and out, you might never have stepped on that one spot. Would you make it your mission to step there after seeing the map? Or let it happen naturally? Or consciously avoid it? Would you set target goals for optimum stepping places? Would you take a different flight from Chicago to Los Angeles just to cross over a state in which you've got no representation? Or would you shun the technology altogether?
I'm sure innovators aren't too far off from being able to design such a map. After all, our every move already is being documented by our phones. But for now, maybe I'll just slap some red paint on the bottom of my shoes and see where that gets me.
5 comments:
Interesting...awesome idea, I would love to see that...but it brings to mind Heisenberg, that path you take will be affected simply by knowing that your path is being monitored and recorded, so in the end you would not get a true "life print".
That's a fair point... What if the map was shown to you during your final days as a way to reflect on another level... Chances are it'd have the same effect. Then again, I wonder how much people would really think about something like this as part of their daily lives if it really existed...
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see such a map. The other impression your post made was recalling the line from "A Christmas Carol"...
"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide..."
********
If it really did exist, one might be conscious of it early on, but like most things, would become accustomed and therefore lesson the Heisenberg effect. Do I feel another app coming on?
You're a philosophical quote machine! haha... Speaking of, should probably watch one of the Christmas Carol's soon...
That was my feeling, too. I don't necessarily see it as something someone would monitor every day.
I'm still busy with the other app... Give me a few years... haha
I think I had a similar experience to reliving my paths yesterday, when I discovered Facebook Timeline. Long a critic of Facebook and rarely one to check in more than once a week or a month, I've been captured by the chance to easily look at every status update I've had since the moment I joined the website. So now I can go back to my first day in college, first day at the FreeP, last day at the FreeP, middle days at the FreeP -- basically a lot of days at the FreeP that I want to relive. And I can see all the photos of me and you and Waite and Jason editing and playing Guitar Hero.
So that's what I did at work on Friday.
Post a Comment