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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Shuffle off to Buffalo - 4. Prompt 4 - Degradation of Memory

 

“What do you mean the pictures we took in Buffalo are gone?” Callum asked, looking up from the Muzz Read article he’d been perusing.

“I mean, I looked everywhere on my watch, my phone, my tablet, the cloud, everywhere and the photos are gone.” Raj’s face was pinched and his eyes troubled, flicking about anxiously.

“They can’t be gone. Are you sure you entered the right password?”

“I’m sure,” Raj said, tossing aside the tablet and once again furiously tapping on his phone screen. “They are simply gone.”

“That’s ridiculous,” the ginger-haired man snorted. “Give it to me.”

Raj handed over the phone and started poking at the watch on his wrist. Its small screen pulsed with items none of which included photos of them from their last trip. “I found the ones from Hawaii.” He smiled as he looked at the lovely shot of his partner in a rain slicker standing next to him, a green sand beach spreading out behind them. That had been a wonderful day.

“I’m not seeing them either. Maybe they’re saved under a different folder name. Sometimes the dates can get mixed up when you move them,” Callum said, opening up more files with smaller numbers on them.

“I love the photo we took at Rainbow Falls,” Raj cooed. “Remember how the sun came out at the last minute?”

“I do,” Callum responded absently, then he began to scowl. “Where are the pictures of the garden this spring. I had a picture of the apple tree blossoms and the tulips in full bloom right below them. It’s not here either.”

Raj closed his phone and skirted over next to him. They both peered at the screen on the phone. Sure enough, the photos from this year, any that had been dated 2019, were gone.

“What about our Grand Canyon pictures?” Callum asked suddenly, scrolling through the phone. There were no files with dates after October 2018.

“Don’t worry,” Raj said. “They’re saved on the cloud and I just saw them on the tablet.

But, after looking again, they weren’t on the tablet. Now, the cloud wasn’t responding at all.

“Is it just the pictures?” Callum asked, alarm pinching his voice, making the tone somewhat teary and a whiny.

“I don’t know,” Raj answered, and pulled up the drawing program that Callum used to create his surreal graphics. There were files there saved in neat rows, but they were disappearing as the two men watched. The tablet seemed to be erasing itself.

“My stories!” Callum cried, and pulled the tablet from his partner’s grasp.

The word documents were gone.

The notes were disappearing.

A quick check of the photo library showed it was empty.

They looked at the videos and the saved personal files.

All empty.

“Could we reboot? Maybe a virus did this and we can recover from the cloud. The cloud has got everything on it.”

Raj sat back and smiled. “Great idea. We’re panicking over nothing.”

***

“I’m sorry guys. There is nothing on this tablet.” The tech at Best Buy said, his forehead wrinkled. “Are you sure this is the right user name and password. I’m not finding a thing. It’s like nothing ever was uploaded.”

The cute, nerdy tech brushed his curly black hair back and his fingers flew like the wind over the surface of his computer. “Yeah, there are no traces of data ever being sent to this account.

“And you couldn’t find anything on our devices?” Callum asked.

“It shows they were activated, but I don’t see any activity. Guys, are you pranking me?” the man asked, now grinning at them his arms crossed.

“Of course, there is,” Raj said angrily. “There are photos of our trip to Key West –”

“Our trip to where?” Callum asked. “We’ve never been to Key West.”

Raj stared dumbfounded at his ginger-haired lover, the freckles dancing on his cheeks. “We went to Key West two years ago after the hurricane. Come on, remember when we flew into Miami? When we used that voucher?”

“I don’t remember that. The trip we took two years ago was to Punta Cana.” Callum scowled at his partner.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Raj said, taking their phone and tablet from the amused tech. “Come on,” he barked at Callum.

“Don’t you remember,” he asked nervously.

“Cals, we’ve never been the Dominican Republic,” Raj said gently.

“Well, I don’t remember going to Key West.”

Raj turned and looked at his partner. His face screwed up and he said, “Who said we went to Key West?”

Both men looked at each other, confused and lost in thought.

We visited a sculpture garden near Syracuse and came upon this exhibit. We decided to use it as our prompt for today. Please check out Valkyrie's "Abandoned Stacks" in Promptings from Valhalla. Thanks for reading!
Copyright © 2019 Cole Matthews; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Chapter Comments

I can imagine people getting electronic memory and processor augmentation implants in the not-too-distant future. Naturally, they’d be linkable to computers, smart phones, tablets, smart watches, and other devices. And theoretically susceptible to computer viruses.

I love technology, but I don’t use Siri or any of the other Assistants. I don’t trust Google and Amazon. And I’m terrified of the evil intentions of the Smirking Weasel™ in the hoodie.

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Oh... this was done so well, I'm almost chilled. That would be my worst nightmare, so I will believe this takes place in some future time, and the 'glitch' will be fixed. :unsure2:  I'd say you're back on the horse now, Cole, definitely. :)  Cheers... Gary....

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Just now, Headstall said:

That would be my worst nightmare…

Backup your photos to multiple locations and different formats.

If a fire damages your computer, you might not be able to recover the hard drive. Cloud services are vulnerable to hacking. All of those fancy devices are easily stolen. The more valuable they are to you, the more places they should be stored.

Friends and relatives who you’ve shared pictures with are good sources for recovery if you’ve lost everything.

35 years ago, my sister-in-law had a fashion photographer friend take pictures of her wedding to my older brother. Unfortunately something went wrong and the photos were ruined. Fortunately, my family loves taking pictures, so there were many pictures of the ceremony itself. But none of the other traditional wedding photos. It was a somewhat similar situation – and they’re still married.
;–)

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On 8/14/2019 at 8:06 PM, dughlas said:

It's as if their life together is being erased. This is scarily good.

I think so too.  I thought the degrading of our collective memories by the disintegrating library would be like a couple losing their past.  In a way, it's the effect of societal loss of the past for a community.  It's experimental, but I liked the idea of making it very personal to see how it felt.  

Thanks for the wonderful comment.  

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On 8/14/2019 at 8:08 PM, droughtquake said:

I can imagine people getting electronic memory and processor augmentation implants in the not-too-distant future. Naturally, they’d be linkable to computers, smart phones, tablets, smart watches, and other devices. And theoretically susceptible to computer viruses.

I love technology, but I don’t use Siri or any of the other Assistants. I don’t trust Google and Amazon. And I’m terrified of the evil intentions of the Smirking Weasel™ in the hoodie.

That's so true.  I see degrading silicon memories much like human memory loses.  Over time, the copies we make of our past memories begin to fade and lose definition, like book molding and disintegrating into the earth.  

Thanks for the insightful comment!

 

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22 hours ago, Headstall said:

Oh... this was done so well, I'm almost chilled. That would be my worst nightmare, so I will believe this takes place in some future time, and the 'glitch' will be fixed. :unsure2:  I'd say you're back on the horse now, Cole, definitely. :)  Cheers... Gary....

Thanks so much Gary!  Yeah, but don't we see the past slowly slip away, in human memory, in books, in computer chips over time.  It's like the copies of copies of copies that fade into obscurity.  That's what I saw in the picture.   It made me sad, as you said, and made me think and treasure what we can preserve.  

I appreciate your kindness!

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21 hours ago, droughtquake said:

Backup your photos to multiple locations and different formats.

If a fire damages your computer, you might not be able to recover the hard drive. Cloud services are vulnerable to hacking. All of those fancy devices are easily stolen. The more valuable they are to you, the more places they should be stored.

Friends and relatives who you’ve shared pictures with are good sources for recovery if you’ve lost everything.

35 years ago, my sister-in-law had a fashion photographer friend take pictures of her wedding to my older brother. Unfortunately something went wrong and the photos were ruined. Fortunately, my family loves taking pictures, so there were many pictures of the ceremony itself. But none of the other traditional wedding photos. It was a somewhat similar situation – and they’re still married.
;–)

Very true.  However, there is so much history which is lost if it isn't preserved and honored.  That's like a library going to seed.  

Great ideas!  Thanks!

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Back around ’88-90, I volunteered for an AIDS education and support agency. They weren’t very careful about maintaining original copies of documents we used regularly and they didn’t have access to the document source (created by a larger, more established non-profit). So Xeroxed copies of Xerox copies meant that the text was not as sharp and clear as it should have been and there were sections that were missing due to sloppy copying methods.

These days, documents are more likely to be generated on computers and printed out fresh and clean. Or they remain in electronic form. But as platforms and formats evolve and change, old data is not always migrated and is sometimes lost in that manner…

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Interesting. Poised at the event horizon of a micro-miniature black hole passing through the solar system, our heroes watched in awe as reality was rewritten before their very eyes!

Unfortunately, the new book was without an index, leaving our heroes wishing desperately for a Cliff Notes of their lives!  :)

Thanks!

 

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23 hours ago, droughtquake said:

Back around ’88-90, I volunteered for an AIDS education and support agency. They weren’t very careful about maintaining original copies of documents we used regularly and they didn’t have access to the document source (created by a larger, more established non-profit). So Xeroxed copies of Xerox copies meant that the text was not as sharp and clear as it should have been and there were sections that were missing due to sloppy copying methods.

These days, documents are more likely to be generated on computers and printed out fresh and clean. Or they remain in electronic form. But as platforms and formats evolve and change, old data is not always migrated and is sometimes lost in that manner…

There is degradation of electronic files just like there is with pen and paper.  We are seeing older electronic records losing cohesion after twenty or thirty years.  

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22 hours ago, Geron Kees said:

Interesting. Poised at the event horizon of a micro-miniature black hole passing through the solar system, our heroes watched in awe as reality was rewritten before their very eyes!

Unfortunately, the new book was without an index, leaving our heroes wishing desperately for a Cliff Notes of their lives!  :)

Thanks!

 

Hahaha!!!!  I love it!  That sounds like an interesting concept to explore.  Perhaps and index should be made!

Thanks Geron!

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2 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

This is spooky. I may not want to go to bed tonight, 'cause of the dreams I might have. Well done.

It is spooky, but that is the way of history, memories, consciousness.  It tends to slide toward entropy without constant care and preservation.  

Thanks Parker!

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2 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

This is spooky. I may not want to go to bed tonight, 'cause of the dreams I might have. Well done.

Don’t worry, you won’t remember them in the morning anyway!
;–)

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On 8/18/2019 at 11:50 AM, aditus said:

This was a nightmare upon a nightmare, upon a nightmare up...

I'm glad the nightmare aspect is apparent.  I wrote it to ponder memory and the fleeting nature of it over time which is scary.  

Thanks Addy!!  

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