Prelude

Paul and Kim are sitting in a tiny waiting room of the Facebook local clinic in Ahala Park. Anxiously waiting for an answer, they can’t stop thinking about all the joy that they would eventually share if all goes well. A man dressed in white appears next to them.

Man in white: Mrs Adwo, Mr Adwo thanks for being patient and waiting so long. Lets have a sit in my office please.

While they are walking toward the office, they see pictures on the walls most likely from the customers who came here previously and got their concerns addressed.

Man in white: Please, have a seat. Would you like to drink some water?

Paul Adwo: Yes please, Kim would you?

Kim Adwo: Yes, I will take a glass of water.

Man in white: Alright! My name is Kofi Akende and I am the Field team lead for the Facebook cloning program in the area. I think you already have all the required info in previous sessions with my colleagues.

(He slowly pours water into two glasses and push them to Kim and Paul.)

Kofi Akende: We have been able to gather all the past memories of your son, Kimani. Going from its birth until his dead. This was not an easy task, since your son was not a fierce Facebook users, but we have been able to gather data from friends and other relatives who have been in contact with him. It allowed us to rebuild his memory up to 17 years, 20 days and 15 hours. So the night before the accident happens. My team has been working on transferring the memory to the replica.

Kim Adwo: How much will it cost?

Kofi Akende: No worries, it is all covered by your son’s life insurance.

Paul Adwo: Kim, darling, are you sure you want to go that way?

Kofi Akende: We have 500 millions of customers around the world Mrs Adwo and they are all satisfied, so you should not be worried.

Kim Adwo: Lets do it, we want our son back.

Paul Adwo: How long the cloning will take? Is the clone going to remember us right away?

Kofi Akende: Your son will wake up, as if he just had a bad dream. Of course the awakening has to happen at your home.

Ok, I need to go initiate the process now, we will take him to you. Just go back home and wait us there.

That night, Paul and Kim Adwo are having supper with their only son, Kimani.

Kimani: Mum, I had a strange dream last night. You know those dreams that look so true.

Kim Adwo: Really?

Paul Adwo: (Looking at Kim strangely) I like the veal, it is really good.

Timeline and your life

Facebook is soon launching Timeline, a new way to display profiles’ information from your Facebook account. While Timeline is certainly one of the greatest achievements from Facebook, it takes us back to the question about the role Facebook plays in our lives on daily basis. Timeline is changing your Facebook account into a Scrapbook, gathering facts and key events from your birth until today. With Timeline, Facebook is coming out of the digital world to be part of your real life and it is becoming a collection of memories of one’s life on earth.

Few hours before Facebook Keynote Event where Timeline was announced, I was ready to close my account, arguing that Facebook was a productivity killer and that we were all working for Facebook Inc. as full-time employees. When I came across Timeline, I thought to myself, “why did you deleted all your pictures”. It would have actually be nice to see how pictures and status updates were arranged over the elegant timeline of my digital life.

I have seen in that move from Facebook, a future that goes beyond reality. What if Facebook was able to remember everything you did, the places you have been to, your views on politics, food, music, cars, clothes, your workplace, colleagues, family, friends and many others meaningful detail of your life. Imagine you have a memory loss, with Timeline you could go trough those events and learn about your past and present life.

Timeline is not only a feature, it is actually a redefinition of the social networking. Activity streams were an important part of the social networks, but with Timeline they become the core. Is Timeline an innovation? Scrapbooks already existed in the past and they were used to capture the very same events Timeline is expecting to receive. But in the digital space, Facebook Timeline is certainly a revolution, since it gives to every user a chance to get its own biography.

While the first part of this article is purely a fiction, we should not underestimate the power of Facebook; when tools such as Timeline, Places and the Like button are used together, your life gets digitalized in a second and can easily be transferred to an AI (Artificial Intelligence) for analysis. And it would be fairly easy to ask to that AI “What are Serge’s favorite movies” and we will get an answer right away “Matrix, 300, Spiderman…”.

Facebook is leveraging what is called Autobiographical Memory in psychology, it is a portion of our brains’ memory system which relates objects, people and events with specific time and locations. From Wikipedia’s article about autobiographical memory: “The social function of autobiographical memory works to develop, maintain, and nurture social bonds by providing material for people to converse about. Seen as one of the most fundamental functions of autobiographical memory, sharing personal memories with others is a way to facilitate social interaction. Disclosing personal experiences can increase the intimacy level between people and reminiscing of shared past events strengthens pre-existing bonds.”

So what can be seen as a lock-in strategy from Facebook is purely based on our inner senses and the way humans bound to each other. Facebook is not only a high-tech company, it is always a fierce psychology firm who is using the best of our brains’ functions to help people maintain their bonds.

Parallel world

It is 01:10am, I am sitting in front of my computer. Trying to remember what is the name of that restaurant we have been 2 years ago. I jump on Facebook and quickly go trough my timeline, there is so many things there. I can’t find the checked-in tag for the restaurant. It is already late and I am exhausted; I want to take you there tomorrow for our anniversary. I lay on the bed, grab my iPhone and ask Siri to find it for me: “Siri, please find that restaurant where Emy and I went two years ago for her birthday”; Siri replies “Troy, do you give me authorization to connect to your Facebook and google accounts to get the information?”. My answer is “Yes and by the way Siri, set a reminder in my calendar, subject dinner with Emy, the location would be that restaurant if you find it. And please send an email to Emy now, subject dinner tomorrow, dear Emy let’s have dinner tomorrow for our anniversary. I will wait for you at the airport…Good night Siri.”; Siri answers “Good night Troy”

Originally published on Innovation Tales