The proliferation of personal data at an exponential rate, combined with the future’s data mining technologies, are going to make the present completely transparent to future generations.

Historians try to paint a picture based on few pieces of information. They look at letters, documents, old newspapers and even cave paintings to try to piece together and understand as much as possible about our past. Often times, very few pieces of information are available, and most of our understanding is just a best guess, but as we receive more data, the better the picture becomes.

It might be interesting to ask ourselves, what might the future of history look like, and how much will people in the future be able discern about us? It is difficult to comprehend how different it will be, but because we are putting out so many data points every day, and our ability to interpret the data is getting so much better, it wouldn’t be out of question to believe there will be extremely detailed pictures of each person with every aspect of them available to study. Will all of our interactions be mapped? If we ever have access to all the data that governments and corporations currently have about us, will even our thoughts be laid bare before the gaze of future civilizations?

On September 8th, 2000, I purchased the album ‘Aeroplane over the Sea’ by Neutral Milk Hotel from Amazon. At the time I figured it was a simple transaction, I’d get the CD, and that would be that. I also knew that based on my experience, I would eventually end up either scratching or losing that same CD. But luckily now, through Amazon, I have access to all of the CDs I purchased, many of them I’ve completely forgotten about. The choice to buy these CDs was made with without the slightest notion that I’d be able to access them digitally,(Ipod wasn’t even out yet). But because digital downloading is so ubiquitous and simple, I have everything I’ve ever bought. If 3d printing eventually becomes as cheap and simple as 2d printing on paper, will we be able to recreate the objects we have purchased?