Here’s a wild idea to chew on over the weekend (and while Outlook is down): I have a prediction that we’re going to see simulated time travel in the next couple years. Imagine, “Take me back to March 12, 2019.”

All the pieces are there: We have photos, geo locations, messages, emails, relationships, calendars, financial transactions, news, weather, and pop culture artifacts like songs, movies, slang, trends, etc. With gen AI video, it should be possible to stitch together a scene from the past that we can replay and interact with in a browser or via VR headset.

Whether you were at your kitchen table, at a wedding, or at work, I think it’ll be possible to replay parts of a day, and eventually a whole day.

I’m not a big science fiction guy but this one feels like it’s right in front of us, and I keep thinking about how mind-blowing this could be. Google, Apple, and Meta have the data, compute, and devices to make this happen.

Have there been any prototypes along these lines? Where might this work best and where might it go off the rails? (Something, something, Black Mirror...)