It might be time to rethink the way we organize digital media. Yale professor, author and conservative social critic David Gelernter believes that the way the internet is currently structured is impractical and chaotic. To him, the shapeless multitude of loosely connected files which makes up the web runs counter to the natural way we organize our lives. What will make surfing the net smoother and easier? The restructuring of digital content into fluid timelines, which he calls “lifestreams”. This more seamless, intuitive system will, he hopes, help the internet serve its real function: “to present relevant information in time.”
Though search-engines like Google can help us navigate the sometimes overwhelming amount of content which the internet offers, this can still prove a very frustrating and time-consuming process. We want to find what is relevant and immediate—a somewhat difficult task given the relatively unmanageable shape of the internet. “The Web itself is a lot of websites hyperlinked together into a nothing-shaped cobweb”, Gelernter affirms, “I sort of tip-toe around tiny areas of it shining a flashlight.” With the concept of “lifestreams”, Gelernter proposes an organization of all our digital objects (documents, photos, emails, web links, music, etc.) in a time-based sequence. This unfolding digital “storyboard” mirrors the way we think about our lives as unfolding stories. Once this concept gains ground, Gelernter envisions the forming of a vast “worldstream” containing all of the world’s privately and communally owned data. The personal data of individuals will be easy-to-access sub-streams which are a part of the greater “worldstream”.
This is not so far-fetched an idea. The “lifestream” model is already being put into practice. From the constantly updated “walls” of Facebook users to Twitter’s feeds, time-ordered sequences are becoming a popular method for organizing digital information. Gelernter himself is, for his next project, seeking to develop a “lifestream” product for the Apple iPad. “Lifestreams” may indeed be, if Gelernter’s predictions are correct, the wave of the future.