This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright 2024 William Acevedo

PERSONAL HISTORY

Goals

PERSONAL HISTORY is way to quickly and easily journal all personal human activity that adds verification to all entries.

We are well into the digital age where we have the technology to begin to seemlessly and effortlessly documenting our lives.

The idea of a "Personal History" encapsulates this overall Principle:

• Ultimately, people should be able to take control of their own "History" and give or deny the permission to use said history.

There are many useful aspects to the idea of a digital "Personal History".

On a personal level, such as:

• The ability to effortlessly document and track what we do in the day.
• The ability to use this collected data to analyze how our day is utilized.
• The ability to have a definitive record of the how idividual changes and grows over time.
• Provides a definitive record of how long, and how offen we engage or practice a set of skills, which can aid in reputation construction.
• It can help the individual protect themselves from fraud and misinformation attacks.

On a Communal level:

• Humans are social creatures. Even the most itroverted or antisocial person would consider isolation for extended periods of time unbearable. This can help us find like minded indivduals who share the same or similar interests or philosophies.
• We are all consumers; Even if we live "off grid", we would eventually trade and barter with one another for goods that we either cannot obtain/produce or due to circumstances which make obtaining said goods impossible or impractical.

On a societal level:

• When on a mass scale, it can help us track and analyze how individuals, collectively, form and mold society.
• Over the generations, it will allow our decendents to have a more accurate record of the past.

Rational

Now you may be wondering, why would anyone ever want to do this. Other questions and concerns regarding privacy, ethics, and public safty arise.

Setting these concerns aside for a moment, let me supply some, for what many may agree is (or should be) a fundamental right of any human being:

• The Right to Free Speach

Many will argue that all speech should not be free, However, there is particularly one aspect of Free Speech the I would like to focus on:

• That aspect is the Freedom to Share

This Freedom is not being attacked by any government, but by technology. It is so easy the manipulate video, audio, using modern software, not even mentioning text, because mass text manipulation tools have existed since not shortly after the invention of the microcontroller (not sure, maybe even earlier) but now have become even tools a lay person can use.

We now have the technology to map the human face digitally, and use this digital information to replicate that person's likeness virtually, on still image and in video. Grant it, the technology is in its early stages, but with the rise more powerful machines, software development, and Artificial Intelligence it will no doubt improve exponetially relativly quickly.

There needs to be a quick, effortless, and most importantly, a method to what I term "Irrifutable Verification" of tracking aspects of life.

Bind to this need is the Right To Share.

The Right To Share

All People like to share.

How many of us have any sort of social media account? And even if you don't, have you never shown a photo album of any kind to another person? Or shared a story? To any other human? Ever?

We all like to share. The motivations behind, or the countless other implications suggested by this statement aside for a moment, and realize that it is the rare human who has lived to maturity and never shared a photo, a memory, or story or a moment which they found memorable.

Couple with the Right to Free Speech, which includes the right not to be compelled to say anything.

What is Personal History?

The Personal History file is simply a JSON data file where you can quickly record, and effotlessly save whatever it is you want to share, in a file which you completely own. Every set of shared data is then used in conjunction with other unique data to generate a hash (the hashing algorithm used is sha256, for reference, but will simply be refered to as hash for the remainder of this document) key that is unique and directly tide to the data you shared.

If the data is changed or manipuated in any way, the generated key will not only not match coresponding data, but will also compromise the integrity of all data entered thereafter.

The goal is to generate a file, which you keep, like a journal, that
is secure and contains only data you choose to share.

This makes you, the individual, the owner of your data.

There are so many aspects of this, especially with modern Analytics tools, that compelled me to start this project. However, the one aspect that excites me most is the idea that now, you can be the true owner of what your share. You control whatever narative you wish to project to the world, verifiably.

Personal History Schema

Here is a rough idea of what the Personal History data file would look like:

{"profile": {
    "username": "wacevedo",
    "firstname": "William",
    "lastname": "Acevedo",
    "password": "encrypted_password"
  },
  "years": [
    {
      "year": 2023,
      "year_hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
      "months": [
        {
          "month": 12,
          "month_hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
          "days": [
            {
              "date": 09,
              "day_hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
              "habits": {
                "pushups": {
                  "pushups-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "100"
                },
                "pilaties": {
                  "pilaties-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                },
                "wallsits": {
                  "wallsits-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                },
                "sqats": {
                  "sqats-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "20"
                },
                "meditation": {
                  "meditation-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "sharable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "date": 08,
              "day_hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
              "habits": {
                "pushups": {
                  "pushups-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "100"
                },
                "pilaties": {
                  "pilaties-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                },
                "wallsits": {
                  "wallsits-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                },
                "sqats": {
                  "sqats-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "shareable": "true",
                  "completed": "20"
                },
                "meditation": {
                  "meditation-hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",
                  "sharable": "true",
                  "completed": "1"
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

How It works:

Whenever a new Personal History file is created it will generate:

• A data set containing:
  • First name, Last name, date, and time
  • two hashed values representing two pieces of unique and private Personal identifying information (e.g., taxid, password)

example in python:

-- example values:

firstname = "herman", 
lastname = "munster", 
tax_id = "8765309",      # This is never saved in Personal History, and should never be saved anywhere
password = "123456789"   # This is never saved in Personal History, and should never be saved anywhere

-- example function used to generate desired output:

generate_priliminary_hash_values(firstname, lastname, tax_id, password)

output:

There are two sets of data created:

• The date and time this data was created, and the first and last name in clear text.
• Hashes created from the firstname, lastname, tax id, and password.

[
    {'encoded_creation_time': '1710540432.688816', # epoch time number converts to 15/03/2024 23:07
     'firstname': 'herman',
     'lastname': 'munster'},

    {'hashed_creation_time': '7b6197b0e5f3f29c2a1df1715c287050b91ecfe68e2f04d572c74ead907c16e6',
    'hashed_tax_id': '5cfaae462bf88066c36bed21fb07bbee16acf6b110840f57c7b2a760dbc80919',         
    'hashed_password': '15e2b0d3c33891ebb0f1ef609ec419420c20e320ce94c65fbc8c3312448eb225',
    'hashed_firstname': '3bf39bf3fe465c0600105b3451f274fa9f05b3c706f022608c0fb28285fe5cbf',
    'hashed_lastname': '7cbd75a33e3f9ceba58eab97dd18cd7866d398f3d56542d64e80a369a36dadab'}
]

To reiterate:

• The data creation time (epoch) is 1710540432.688816, which converts to 15/03/2024 23:07 equals 7b6197b0e5f3f29c2a1df1715c287050b91ecfe68e2f04d572c74ead907c16e6
• If any part of the date or time is changed, in any form, the original hash number will not match.
• This process of verification can be done with any, and all forms of data (text, images, video, audio)

This data set is saved within the Personal History File, and then this data is used to generate the file name and used as the first hash which identifies the current year.

Why is hashing important?

Hashing is "one way", meaning that while the information can be verified with the hash number, the hash number can not be used to generate, or get the original information, i,e: your tax ID is: 123456789, and this number is used generate "5cfaae462b...", however, "5cfaae462b..." can not be used to generate your tax ID. This is a common menthod of authentication for websites, meaning this is how it is possible to verify your password without storing your actual password on their servers.

example in python code using previously generated data:

personal_history_userdata01 = [
    {'encoded_creation_time': '1710540432.688816', # epoch time number converts to 15/03/2024 23:07 ```
     'firstname': 'herman',
     'lastname': 'munster'},
                                                                                                     
    {'hashed_creation_time': '7b6197b0e5f3f29c2a1df1715c287050b91ecfe68e2f04d572c74ead907c16e6',
    'hashed_tax_id': '5cfaae462bf88066c36bed21fb07bbee16acf6b110840f57c7b2a760dbc80919',         
    'hashed_password': '15e2b0d3c33891ebb0f1ef609ec419420c20e320ce94c65fbc8c3312448eb225',
    'hashed_firstname': '3bf39bf3fe465c0600105b3451f274fa9f05b3c706f022608c0fb28285fe5cbf',
    'hashed_lastname': '7cbd75a33e3f9ceba58eab97dd18cd7866d398f3d56542d64e80a369a36dadab'}
]

Using this data, we can now generate the file name and the hash for the current year:

Possible function in Python:

create_ph_hashed_day_file_name(personal_history_userdata01)

Output:

['b8b77a5b311fb3a27b425bcab6a170fc499a2fe68170f50a2baa82bdacc3ea25',
 [{'encoded_creation_time': '1710540432.688816',
   'firstname': 'herman',
   'lastname': 'munster'},
  {'hashed_creation_time': '7b6197b0e5f3f29c2a1df1715c287050b91ecfe68e2f04d572c74ead907c16e6',
   'hashed_tax_id': '5cfaae462bf88066c36bed21fb07bbee16acf6b110840f57c7b2a760dbc80919',
   'hashed_password': '15e2b0d3c33891ebb0f1ef609ec419420c20e320ce94c65fbc8c3312448eb225',
   'hashed_firstname': '3bf39bf3fe465c0600105b3451f274fa9f05b3c706f022608c0fb28285fe5cbf',
   'hashed_lastname': '7cbd75a33e3f9ceba58eab97dd18cd7866d398f3d56542d64e80a369a36dadab'}]]

The first value in the list provided above:

b8b77a5b311fb3a27b425bcab6a170fc499a2fe68170f50a2baa82bdacc3ea25

Is a hash value generated from the combination of:

• hashed_creation_time
• hashed_tax_id
• hashed_password
• hashed_firstname
• hashed_lastname

and will be both the primary file name, and the hashed value of the current year.

filename:

b8b77a5b311fb3a27b425bcab6a170fc499a2fe68170f50a2baa82bdacc3ea25.ph

and contents of file:

{"profile": {
    "firstname": "herman",
    "lastname": "munster",
    "creation_date": "1710540432.688816",
    "tax_id": "5cfaae462bf88066c36bed21fb07bbee16acf6b110840f57c7b2a760dbc80919"
    "password": "15e2b0d3c33891ebb0f1ef609ec419420c20e320ce94c65fbc8c3312448eb225"
  },
  "years": [
    {
      "year": 2023,
      "year_hash": "7f83b1657ff1fc53b92dc18148a1d65dfc2d4b1fa3d677284addd200126d9069",

Okay, so now what?

Once the year hash has been generated, the content creation flow goes as follows:

In essense, each layer of data is created by using a combination of:

• up to the previous 10 hashes.
• and any relavent data needed at that specific current level.

The month hash is generated by using a combination of:

• the preceeding hash (in this case, the year hash).
• the Time the Month hash creation takes place.
  NOTE: the month container has its own hash for identification, as well as data integrity purposes

The Day hash is generated by using a combination of:

• The combined text of both the the month and year hashes
• and the text of the data that is beeing collected.
• and the date and time the data is collected.