In the aftermath of a plane crash, one of the first things the accident investigators look for is the flight recorder.  Inaptly named the “black box”, it is neither a box, nor is it black – a very bright shade of red is much easier to locate.  Recording on a virtual continuous loop, it presumably will have a record of events for the last critical moments of the flight.

Beginning in the 1990’s, the magnetic tape units originally used in flight recorders were replaced by solid state memory boards.  Today, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner can log 146,000 separate flight parameters, resulting in several terabytes of data per flight.  There is a separate recorder which preserves the last two hours of cockpit audio (crew member expletives included).  All this data requires sophisticated analysis software.

Automobile dash cameras, building surveillance cameras and law enforcement body-cams are further examples of how pre-event data logging has infiltrated our lives.  Thieves have been apprehended, legal issues have been resolved, and car vandals have been brought to justice using this recorded information.  Imagine what a future civilization might think of us if they unearthed all this data.  <continue reading>