Precedents

Prior research began in the exploration of the digital mind topic. One of my biggest questions through-out this process was, “are perfect digital memories really that important or valuable if there is no biological ‘tether’ in a person’s mind?” I concluded that while digital memories could be really helpful for remembering certain events or previous learnings, the point of memories is not to simply remember them. We get something from these memories that help us grow into who we are as people and help us project our aspirations for the future. Researchers Abigail J. Sellen and Steve Whittaker in “Beyond Total Capture: A Constructive Critique of Lifelogging”, argue that “digital archives may be generally less valuable than people would hope.” They also point out that "people have greater difficulty remembering what they intend to do in the future (prospective memory)" rather than remembering the past. I decided to focus on delivering that particular value of facilitating prospective memory.