Steemit Blockchain Memory Project

in #story7 years ago (edited)

Memories make us who we are. With each memory we make we create a new passage in our book of life. Shared memories can also allow us to learn about other cultures, generations, and important historic events much better and more accurately than history books.

As I venture further into middle age I also see how fragile memories really are. My father, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about a year ago, struggles to remember on bad days. On good days he still sometimes tells me a story from his past that I’d never heard of and, for me, it’s like striking gold. Some of the stories he tells me, like hitchhiking across the country and taking odd jobs along the way to survive just wouldn’t happen today.

A few weeks ago my wife Raymi, @dougkarr, and I were sitting at our neighborhood bar enjoying a drink or three on a gloomy day when the seed for the idea of this project was born. We were discussing how different childhood was in the 1970’s and sharing harrowing childhood memories that would likely never happen today in this era of helmets, iPads, and play dates.

I had never really thought of it before but childhood in the seventies was a strange mashup of strict discipline (when needed) and unbridled freedom most of the time. This made for some interesting adventures and a fair share of character-building in the form of bumps, bruises, and broken bones.

The world has changed so drastically in the past few decades and will change even more quickly in the decades to come.

How Does Blockchain Enter into this Equation?

Blockchain is an immutable ledger capable of storing data (i.e., these memories) in a decentralized and searchable way, theoretically forever. Can we say match made in heaven?

Rules of Engagement

  • Share any significant memory you’d like to. Think about things that have shaped who you are or may be unique in some way. Think about memories you’d like your great-great-grandchildren to read about....now write posts about these memories in your Steemit blog.
  • Use proper tags (see below)
  • Share a link to this post in all of your Blockchain Memory Project posts so others can find the rules.
  • Share your posts with your friends and family on external social media outlets (optional but encouraged).

The Key is in the Tags!

We want your memories to live on forever. We also want those memories to be searchable by those who might be looking for them in the future.

For this reason, I suggest the following tags for your first four - “Story Life Blog BlockchainMemoryProject”.

Your last tag should be very specific to what you’re writing about in your post, something that will help people who are searching for it on the internet.

I'll be sharing memories of my own along the way.

Prizes

Each month I will comb through the posts tagged with “BlockchainMemoryProject” and choose my favorites. The post owners will receive a surprise in their wallet...a portion of a monthly prize of 10 Steem! Note: all rules of engagement must be followed for your post to qualify.

As always, I thank you for reading.

Yours in the Chain,

Eric

(Gifs sourced from Giphy.com)


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Really interesting, in my opinion memories are nothing but the evolution of our thoughts most of the times and in my opinion our brain is an great technology because we have two fields in the Brain as Conscious and Sub Conscious and both have diversified actions but subconscious mind dominates the most because it covers the 90% of memory of our brain and remaining 10% is holding by the Conscious brain, i am telling all these details because i want to say that our current moments can become great memories of tomorrow but we are facing so much problems in life and our life perishable then let's write our stories on Blockchain Technology where possibly it will be stored for the ever. Thanks for sharing this post with us and it was really interesting to read, keep up the great work and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂

An amazing idea for a project, I'm sure we will chat more about this :D

Thank you my friend! Hopefully this catches on, I like the potential in it.

I love this idea and intend to write the story of a memory later today. I always appreciate your writing prompts :)

Thank you @colinhoward! So glad you're enjoying the prompts. I hope this one takes on a life of its own and has some staying power. I'm looking forward to reading yours!

Very good idea dear friend , am not good in english and not a good writer like you , so I can't participate in it .

Thank you @spiritualpower! Have you tried Google Translate? Sometimes I'll use it to translate my responses to Steemit comments that people leave in other languages. Steemit's Russian counterpart Golos also has translation built into their platform. You may want to try Google Translate and see if it works for you..

I love your idea. It is the reason why I was attracted to Steemit, as I wrote in my first post. For a historian like myself, the past is almost alive, and I will certainly try to make a (few) post(s) about my youth (in the fifties and sixties) myself.

Thank you, @clio! I can't wait to read your additions to the project.

This is such a wonderful and well executed initiative @ericvancewalton! Can’t wait to start reading these and contributing my own. Already scratching at the memory banks. Come on axons and neurons do your thing :-) Exciting!

Thank you my friend! I'm sure you have a plethora of good ones to share. The one about the boat you told us at the bar is pretty epic.

This is a really fun project Eric and I really look forward to reading contributing posts.

Using this as an impetus for inspiring stories/memories, there will surely be some really rich writing!

memories you’d like your great-great-grandchildren to read about

Thanks @natureofbeing! When I think about some of my experiences from childhood the world has changed so much that it seems like it took place centuries ago. We used to go to a dime store as children and buy an entire bag of candy for $1. Video games didn't really arrive enmasse until the early 80's so during those elementary school summer vacations it was just us, the outdoors and our imaginations. I don't think any generation will ever experience that again. How lucky were we?

I hear you! I too have always been so grateful to grow up with that immense freedom (neglect ;-) and natural consequences that you referred to and SO much time romping around with my friends building stuff, making up games, being silly and eating tons of candy. And we're especially lucky to have had that AND such powerful and profound technical evolutions so here we are on blockchain technology. Pretty far out!

Very interesting idea That would be perfect idea for providing steemit blockchain it is important to design incentive for people to uproot "old" content and still have the author get compensated for that.thanks for sharing keep it up Great work for every one

Hmmm..I have so many interesting memories I am fond of, so gotta start recollecting and writing them down! Thanks for this movement @ericvancewalton. 😄 You've just added one great reason for Steemit to stay for life! Crossing my fingers for that!

On a side note, it's true during the good ol' days we are unbridled and fearless. Sprinting from one end to the other, playing until we pass out. Those were glory days! Now the world is much complicated. Kids don't do that anymore, and instead stick their eyes on the screens and play video games.

You're welcome @michelleast! I'm looking forward to reading some of your contributions!

Eric, I'm so sorry about your dad. It is so hard to see the memory fade in a loved one.
I like your Idea of Steemit Blockchain Memory Project. I will resteem and hopefully make a contribution.

Thank you @lakshmi! We're very lucky because he has more good days than bad. He's on a medication now that's keeping him very stable. Can't wait to see your contributions!

That is good to hear. It is important to know that good and happy times together even if not remembered have a positive impact on health and mood. It seems like the body remembers even if the mind doesn't.