The Shape of Your Life

Basically, what I’m envisioning is a GPS device that constantly relays your position to your computer (with unrealistic accuracy). It also includes an altimeter which is sensitive enough to detect even the fact that you’ve just walked up a flight of stairs. All this data is wirelessly sent back to your PC, which thus builds up a precise picture of your movements.

The device is small enough to be worn about your person, and comfortable enough for you to completely forget about it after a while. Perhaps built into a watch or a ring: if it could be built into such a ubiquitous item of jewellery, so much the better. I’d rather not venture into the scary realm of implants with this idea. But it should be something that you habitually wear and don’t really think about. It just quietly sits there, telling your computer exactly where you are. And maybe also looking nice.

So, after a few years, your computer has built up a very precise record of your movements. It’s formed a specific three-dimensional shape out of your day-to-day wanderings, built up from data received from the device. And, using some specially-written software, you can view this image yourself - you can zoom in and out of this seemingly random squiggle, spin it around at your leisure and view it from every conceivable viewpoint. Your house would be so thick with lines that it would appear as a shaded box (you would have to zoom in very closely to determine the particular lines you drew on specific days) – similarly, if you commute to work, that particular offshoot would be as full of interwoven threads as a strongly woven rope.

But then there are places which you only visit once. A vacation, perhaps, or a party hosted by someone you know through a friend-of-a-friend: maybe even a couple of blocks you toured around when you were lost and looking for somewhere else. These appear as random doodles around the shape of your life, strange upstart offshoots which apparently go nowhere but always link back into those old, well-worn patterns. And they show up as cobweb-thin in comparison to the tree-trunk routes of your usual paths.

As I said, you can view all your many travels in one glance on your computer – spin around the shape to take it in in all its three-dimensional magnificence (might be amusing if skydiving is your hobby – more so if you also enjoy deep-sea diving at weekends), zoom out to see the full extent of your travails, zoom in if you want to chart the particular (and precise to the inch) route you took to work on a particular day.

And by the way; you did remember to keep a journal, didn’t you? Every day you wrote a brief account of what happened to you, what you thought about it and what you’re going to do about it. So as well as storing your movements each day, you also tell your faithful PC what was running through your head on that particular day: nothing too taxing, just like a typical diary entry. Zoom in on the Shape of Your Life closely enough, and what you’d thought were just lines resolve themselves into lines of actual text. Your computer has taken your journal/diary entries and stretched them out to cover your movements on that day, in one twisting, banner-like line. Certain places are filled with a cacophony of words, drenched in vociferous memories: other places (like the aforementioned vacation offshoots) have a clear narrative you can follow from beginning to end.

As you view the shape of your life, spin around it and try to discern some kind of meaning in it, you also have an option to settle on a particular line and follow it. Then it is like reading a diary. You follow the text through all the (literal) ups and downs of that particular day, and in the background, you also see the words and thoughts of other days passing you by.

Might help to put things into perspective. Most people have an idea of the direction they want their life to head in: this might help as a kind of diagnostic tool. It would certainly show you what unexpected ruts you’ve fallen into.