Uploading protocol, very short version

If you want to start collecting data for digital immortality today, here is the set of simple starting instructions.

DNA. Collect own DNA, may be by sending it to 23andMe.

Memoir. Write down the history of your life with drawings.

Life-logging. Practice video and audio recording of important conversations.

Archives. Archive all data from Facebook and scan archives.

See more detailed version as well as all theory in the article.


Uploading protocol, short version

There are two main tasks in digital immortality (DI), equally important: collecting the best data and preserving it in the best ways. Below I will describe how to collect the data, and the information about preservation strategies you could find the article.

1 Choosing a personal uploading strategy

The main starting point for the DI is to make a decision about beginning of a personal DI project and determine how much time and money one should spend on it.

The efforts should be divided almost equally between data collection and long-term data preservation. Data preservation is difficult, and it would be a pity to lose the data you collected.

I recommend starting with a period of active uploading and later turn to passive recording. However, if one doesn't have the time for active uploading now, installing some recording software will be good first step.

The main principle here is to tap cheapest and most predicting information sources first.

• Make a decision about starting DI

• Time and resource allocation

• Choose available resources

• Plan your data collection methods for DI

• Choose the most informative methods first, but also try several methods to get different viewpoints on your personality

• Quickly upload the first version of your DI information


2 Steps of data collection

The advice below may seem obvious, but they are result of trials and errors of a group of people over several years. Below is a personal uploading plan, which is broken into "days", though each task may actually require more than a single day.

Day 1: Collecting existing data

1. Create a Dropbox or Google cloud account at least 1 TB, which provide temporary storage of your data (Temporary, because if a person dies, she will stop paying, and the data will be deleted. Google is a better option, as they may preserve the data for their own needs and it is likely that superintelligence will arise from Google.)

2. Copy all already existing electronic archives, including photo, documents, and video to this temporary storage.

3. Extract personal data from social networks. Facebook allows you to download all data you have ever created on their platform as one file. Extract archives from your email services, like GMail.

4. Install audio and video recording software on your PC. For Mac, the best programs are Evocam and Simple recorder. Evocam records video in 1-hour fragments from the built-in camera with good compression. Simple recorder records audio by clicking one small button.

5. Take care that you video files are compressed. Evocam can compress video to as file sizes as small as 100 MB for 1 hour. GoPro cameras can create several gigabytes per hour; large video sizes will complicate management of archive copies.

6. Use your smartphone as a recorder during conversation. Use of a standalone recorder is aggressive, and a smartphone is better for recording management and naming. Ask other participant of the conversation to record it, while explaining that you are not going to use or even transcribe the recording, but are creating recordings for the sake of digital immortality.

7. Start writing you autobiography. It should be long, emotion-centered and honest, not just a collection of facts.

8. Make photo and video recordings of your home environment. You may comment the video.

9. Start writing a diary.

10. Order a 23andMe test. 23andMe is Google-affiliated; surely Google will preserve your data. SNIP tests are not exactly the same as full genome reading, but Google will keep your biological materials.

Day 2. Self-description

People are different, and prescribing one way of self-description for all will create unnecessary unification, where individuality will be lost. So, day 2 is better spent in reflection to determine which ways of self-expression are most appropriate for you. You may try different approaches, to see where information is running freely from you and clearly presents some unique insights. The more unique way of self-expression you will find, the better it will fix your uniqueness.

You may benefit from finding partner in self-description, but another option is take a vacation and spend it analyzing yourself.

Day 3. Run psychological tests

There are many personality tests, you may choose the one you like and record all your data. It is better to take the test with large number of questions.

Running Rorschach tests also helpful.

The third type of tests is police tests which they use to collect data about a person.

Day 4. Record the stream of consciousness

Just start writing down whatever thought is coming into your head. It is important to record every thought without censorship. If you will be able to write down a lot, like more than a hundred pages, even contemporary simulating systems like GPT-2 could simulate your internal stream of consciousness.

Note that recording the stream of consciousness is not exactly the same as pure automatic writing where you just open floodgates of your unconsciousness and could write completely unexpected texts. In recording the stream of consciousness (SC) you should put attention of what is actually going in your mind in your everyday life, like "I have to call my friend, there is my pet?"

Anyway, there is no way to do it wrong, as any your mistakes will be representation of your personality.

An alternative to writing is audiorecording of the thoughts, but it could be sometimes emotionally distressful, as it will be like confession, and it is known to trigger emotions.

Day 5. Visit friends and recording interviews with them

Other people have a lot of ideas about you and they also remember things which you prefer to forget. You may ask other people to tell what they remember about you, and surely you will be surprised. Just not forget to record this on audio with their permission.

Day 6. Experiments with EEG monitoring

Currently it become possible to reconstruct internal thought stream based on EEG data using neural nets. Thus, recording such data may help in the future to reconstruct what you actually think. There are two options to record EEG – buy a commercial system like Muse or Open BCI with 32 channels, which may cost around 1000 USD and some knowledge in connecting wires etc.

Or just hire a medical professional for some medical tests, which may cost less in some countries. In Russia, one could get EEG at home starting from 150 USD.

Day 7. Create art

Art is a unique signature of one's personality. Different people may have inclination to different types of art, like singing, dancing or poetry. However, I recommend drawings as they could be done quick, they are rather unique in style and they could convey a lot of semantic information, which can't be represented in words. Drawing with some text comments are especially useful. A person could make hundred simple drawings a day, which could present his childhood memories, dreams, friends etc.

Moreover, I recommend to make EEG and video recording while drawing. Such complex data collecting will provide many views on the same internal process.

Another thing you could do is the practice of active imagination with a partner and record resulting data.

Day 8. Create an idealised image of self

Not all data in your brain is actually you, and you may choose what you want to preserve in better form. The best way to do it is to create idealized version of yourself and the world where you would like to live in some form of fiction. It may be a novel or a series of drawings.