Interesting explorations of societal impact (Score 1)

Rober Sawyer's Hominids has an interesting exploration of the impact automatic searchable 'memory' might have on a society. The Neanderthal society calls these 'alibi archives' -- everyone is implanted at birth with an AI helper that, among other things, records all their conversations, activities, etc. to a cube in a centralized storage area, where they are available to the individual concerned and to judicial review after a subpoena-like process. I'm not commenting on the technology involved in this, but it is interesting to explore a society where such a thing has been implemented in at least one possible way. Not that I'd necessarily want to live there, mind ...