The Family Tree begins now
Record your life to pass down what matters
Family trees have been around for centuries, even millennia. However the real family tree begins for us at the start of the internet. No longer is our family information tied down to one picture of our great grandparents passed down through the family or stories.
Recently my brother had his DNA sent in to ancestry.com and it got me thinking about life and the family tree. Currently we can see some of where our family comes from in a truly special way. This is something that formerly only descendants of wealthy or “good” families had.
However I think the real family tree starts with us in this moment. All of our data is recorded and digitized. Everything we do can be tracked down to be stored in a database.
I know this is pretty scary when Facebook, Google, the FBI, and credit card companies sell this data, but let me explain a bit more.
Andddddd… hey they’re already on their way to grab your data to sell it to someone anyways, so let’s try to find a positive!
This data we have can tell our life story. Our entire life story, not just a young picture of who we were that gets passed down the family. Every photo we ever uploaded, the stories we craft, the videos of our favorite memories, and more can give our family the real picture.
One day our great grandchildren will be able to see more than high resolution photos of us and videos of what we did in life. They will see US, the people we are and who we become.
Will they see something meaningful?
That’s only if you decide to record some of your life though. If you avoid social media this may be difficult for you. Yet, it may not be completely impossible.
If you’re on social media files will exist somewhere with all the TikTok dances, weird photos on instagram, and of course what you ate some day when you went on a hangry twitter rant.
This thought is absolutely incredible. My life and your life can be seen and shared with your family not just in the present day but also one day when we’re gone. Our grandparents probably never could have imagined that every bit of their life could be documented and shared one day to their grandkids.
Think about it
We all eventually yearn to remember our loved ones when they’re gone.
Perhaps you find old pictures and want to know more about why they’re in this photo album. It could have some writing about who it is but beyond that you may have no idea who this is. My cousin and I just recently were looking through old photos only to find pictures of people our mothers didn’t know.
These people should have been remembered but were ultimately forgotten by their family. Our generations will not have such a problem if we keep track of our lives. We have so much more to share even when we’re gone that our family members can see.
The person you are today could make a video that may help your great grand child. Or a poem of how you felt after a break up could console your descendant.
This is something that could only have been done before by people who were related to authors or artists. Those authors and artists were likely not even leaving any messages to their family members.
Even the idea of tracing your lineage
Transcendance
Another aspect that could happen with new technology is the concept of downloading your conscience to some sort of virtual system. Think of Netflix’s Altered Carbon or Sword Art Online. One day we could live virtually forever as saved living data at that point. Able to communicate with others inside or possibly out. Perhaps we’d even live as androids — dreaming of electric sleep.
The concept of course hasn’t been created but with how technology has advanced this could one day be a reality. (To my great grandkids: I CALLED IT IN 2021.) And we could share all the stories we had of what life was like in this moment to our descendants.
