Tempus Fugit and the need for an e-Social Contract

Abstract

For autonomous agents to achieve their full potential they require access to detailed private information. The time is rapidly approaching when we can build systems to gather this information and monitor all aspects of an individual's life. In this paper we describe Tempus Fugit (Time Flies), an attempt to create just such a system. The reality of this technology has enormous social implications and, misused, it creates direct threats to liberty. We further describe an "e-Social Contract", a design philosophy developed to safeguard against these threats. It is the foundation of the design philosophy behind Tempus Fugit and should be considered in the development of any agent technology.