Human memory is associative, not absolute. We rarely remember an event by its exact calendar placement; we remember it by what happened before or after it.
Abstract This paper examines the concept of "date everything" — systematically recording timestamps and provenance metadata across digital artifacts, workflows, and human–computer interactions. We define goals (integrity, reproducibility, accountability, forensics), identify application domains (scientific research, software development, legal evidence, content moderation, data pipelines, personal lifelogging), survey existing approaches (filesystem timestamps, W3C PROV, blockchain timestamping, UTC vs. local-time handling, NTP/PTP synchronization, secure hardware clocks, digital signatures, secure logging), analyze challenges (clock drift, time zone ambiguity, mutable metadata, privacy trade-offs, storage/scalability, attacker models, legal admissibility), and propose a practical architecture and evaluation plan. date everything
We are terrified of loss. We hold onto a PDF from 2017 because throwing it away feels like admitting that past version of ourselves was wrong. Human memory is associative, not absolute
Use a laundry marker to write the purchase date inside the heel of your shoes. Write the installation date on your air filter. Write the battery change date on the inside of the smoke detector cover. You cannot track what you do not timestamp. We hold onto a PDF from 2017 because