Footsteps, sweat, caffeine, memories, stress, even sex and dating habits – it can all be calculated and scored like a baseball batting average. And if there isn’t already an app or a device for tracking it, one will probably appear in the next few years.Brittany Bohnet, who was converted into a self-quantifier while working at Google, says she expects these gadgets will follow us in all aspects of our lives – even the most private. “Eventually we’ll get to a point where we use the restroom and we’ll get a meter that tells us, ‘You’re deficient in vitamin B,’” she says. “That will be the end goal, where we understand exactly what our bodies need.”
Socrates, Socrates; what do you have to say now, old chum? How about the overexamined life? Is that worth living?
I'm hoping that all this sustained narcissistic attention acts much like a magnifying glass and burns a hole in the very fabric of space/time through which our world can tumble, but that's probably just me.
3 comments:
I think this is interesting. I mean, I doubt I would keep it up forever. But it would be nice, for instance, to get a baseline now when I'm in my twenties and produce my own longitudinal study. I know I'm motivated by numbers like that -- I think a lot of people are, just based on the number of reviewers saying that having the Prius show them the direct effect of their driving on their fuel mileage made them more efficient drivers.
I think where there would really be a growth market is a consultancy... asking people what they'd change, and setting up the monitoring and tracking process. The learning curve is huge.
I wonder *what* Socrates would say?
Eventually we'll get to a point where your toilet will test your piss for drugs and automatically dial the cops. That will be the end goal, where we can be turned into safer citizens, and better human beings.
The unexamined navel is not worth having.
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