# Recording your entire life is now feasible **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 30, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699 "2009-01-30T08:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/1 "2009-01-30T08:52:10Z")
Full-motion, audio movies can be recorded at reasonable quality at 10 megabytes per second minute. there are 1440 minutes in a day, so that’s about 15 gigabytes a day (rounding up), or about 5 terabytes a year. According to [pricewatch.com](http://pricewatch.com), a terabyte harddrive can be purchased for about $100, so that’s $500 a year. We double the storage costs to take into account redundancy or whatever, and that’s $1000 a year, or about $85 a month. That’s a bit high, but affordable to at least some of the middle class. Whoa, what a crazy future we live in. Wow, that would be the most boring video ever. Most people lead pretty boring lives, and there’s stuff no one wants to see, like the time you got salmonella. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/2 "2009-01-30T11:07:45Z")
Check out [The Final Cut](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/). ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/3 "2009-01-30T12:10:19Z")
Yes, but when would you watch it? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/4 "2009-01-30T12:38:40Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > Full-motion, audio movies can be recorded at reasonable quality at 10 megabytes per second minute. But what about the _first_ minute? ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/5 "2009-01-30T13:08:32Z")
You’ll probably be interested in [this 2005 article](http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov05/2153) on Gordon Bell and the MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/6 "2009-01-30T14:53:56Z")
If you watched reruns, would you create a temporal causality loop that would end Civilization As We Know It? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/7 "2009-01-30T15:17:12Z")
And what about picture-in-picture? That would be the way to watch it, though. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/8 "2009-01-30T20:54:17Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > But what about the _first_ minute? :smack: I meant “per minute”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/9 "2009-01-30T20:56:40Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > If you watched reruns, would you create a temporal causality loop that would end Civilization As We Know It? Whoa, that made me think of a weird loop you could intentionally get yourself in. First, watch the last minute of your life. Then, watch that last minute. Then, that last minute. The video of your life will be you watching television watching television watching television, nested arbitrarily deep. ---
**Author:** ![Wiltshire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Wiltshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiltshire)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/10 "2009-01-30T21:36:00Z")
What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie? - Now. You’re looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now. - What happened to then? - We passed then. - When? - Just now. We’re at now now. - Go back to then. - When? - Now. - Now? - Now. - I can’t. - Why? - We missed it. - When? - Just now. - When will then be now? - Soon. - How soon? [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvd3kaupZ60) ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-your-entire-life-is-now-feasible/483699/11 "2009-01-31T00:46:13Z")
> [@Wiltshire](#): > > What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie? - Now. You’re looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now. - What happened to then? - We passed then. - When? - Just now. We’re at now now. - Go back to then. - When? - Now. - Now? - Now. - I can’t. - Why? - We missed it. - When? - Just now. - When will then be now? - Soon. - How soon? > > [http://youtube.com/watch?v=zvd3kaupZ60](http://youtube.com/watch?v=zvd3kaupZ60) I bestow upon thee the reward of a coupon good for One Free Internet. Use it wisely.