The struggle to discover our history is not a legacy we should leave for future generations. With the tools and technologies available to us today, it is our responsibility to capture a rich data set for the future generations. This data need to be highly detailed and include all aspects of "all of our lives". Not just a sample of humans from each kind, whatever be the definition of kind, but for each human that ever lived, including the relationships between people. I do understand that there is a,lot of concern in a large number of people about " Privacy". This would certainly go against there wishes. It will not be cheap or easy, but it is vital for survival of human race.
Why is this necessary? One day in future, this will be one of the most valuable resources for research and will be used in ways we cannot even imagine today. Capturing as much data as possible and organizing it in a database will provide for discovering trends and knowledge today and in future. As the data completeness improves, so will the complexity to analyze and discover trends, but also the potential for discovering life threatening issues and their solutions. We have several intractable problems today: cancer, AIDS, climate change or global warming , terrorism and many more which would benefit from a such a rich data set.
What should be included in this database? The simple answer is everything. Practically, it would evolve over time as we start developing it. All official records would be a good starting place: birth records, residential information, criminal history, medical history, financial history, social interactions.
The data needs to be secured and used in such a way that it can be used for good endeavors only. It is not in scope of this blog to detail the means of ensuring the misuse of this data. I recognize that a lot of work will be required to make it happen and it needs to be done in a responsible way.
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