Gary Wolf: The quantified self

70,514 views ・ 2010-09-27

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:17
I got up this morning at 6:10 a.m.
0
17260
3000
00:20
after going to sleep at 12:45 a.m.
1
20260
3000
00:23
I was awakened once during the night.
2
23260
2000
00:25
My heart rate was 61 beats per minute --
3
25260
2000
00:27
my blood pressure, 127 over 74.
4
27260
3000
00:30
I had zero minutes of exercise yesterday,
5
30260
2000
00:32
so my maximum heart rate during exercise wasn't calculated.
6
32260
3000
00:35
I had about 600 milligrams of caffeine,
7
35260
2000
00:37
zero of alcohol.
8
37260
2000
00:39
And my score on the Narcissism Personality Index,
9
39260
3000
00:42
or the NPI-16,
10
42260
2000
00:44
is a reassuring 0.31.
11
44260
3000
00:48
We know that numbers are useful for us
12
48260
2000
00:50
when we advertise, manage, govern, search.
13
50260
3000
00:53
I'm going to talk about how they're useful when we reflect,
14
53260
3000
00:56
learn, remember
15
56260
2000
00:58
and want to improve.
16
58260
3000
01:01
A few years ago, Kevin Kelly, my partner, and I
17
61260
3000
01:04
noticed that people were subjecting themselves
18
64260
2000
01:06
to regimes of quantitative measurement and self-tracking
19
66260
2000
01:08
that went far beyond the ordinary, familiar habits
20
68260
3000
01:11
such as stepping on a scale every day.
21
71260
2000
01:14
People were tracking their food via Twitter,
22
74260
3000
01:17
their kids' diapers on their iPhone.
23
77260
2000
01:19
They were making detailed journals
24
79260
2000
01:21
of their spending, their mood,
25
81260
2000
01:23
their symptoms, their treatments.
26
83260
3000
01:26
Now, we know some of the technological facts
27
86260
3000
01:29
that are driving this change in our lifestyle --
28
89260
3000
01:32
the uptake and diffusion of mobile devices,
29
92260
3000
01:35
the exponential improvement in data storage
30
95260
2000
01:37
and data processing,
31
97260
2000
01:39
and the remarkable improvement in human biometric sensors.
32
99260
3000
01:42
This little black dot there
33
102260
2000
01:44
is a 3D accelerometer.
34
104260
2000
01:46
It tracks your movement through space.
35
106260
3000
01:50
It is, as you can see, very small and also very cheap.
36
110260
3000
01:53
They're now down to well under a dollar a piece,
37
113260
2000
01:55
and they're going into all kinds of devices.
38
115260
2000
01:57
But what's interesting
39
117260
2000
01:59
is the incredible detailed information that you can get
40
119260
3000
02:02
from just one sensor like this.
41
122260
3000
02:05
This kind of sensor
42
125260
2000
02:07
is in the hit biometric device --
43
127260
2000
02:09
among early adopters at the moment -- the Fitbit.
44
129260
3000
02:12
This tracks your activity and also your sleep.
45
132260
3000
02:16
It has just that sensor in it.
46
136260
2000
02:18
You're probably familiar with the Nike+ system.
47
138260
2000
02:20
I just put it up because that little blue dot is the sensor.
48
140260
3000
02:24
It's really just a pressure sensor
49
144260
2000
02:26
like the kind that's in a doorbell.
50
146260
2000
02:28
And Nike knows how to get
51
148260
2000
02:30
your pace and distance from just that sensor.
52
150260
3000
02:33
This is the strap
53
153260
3000
02:36
that people use to transmit heart-rate data
54
156260
3000
02:39
to their Nike+ system.
55
159260
2000
02:41
This is a beautiful, new device
56
161260
2000
02:43
that gives you detailed sleep tracking data,
57
163260
3000
02:46
not just whether you're asleep or awake, but also your phase of sleep --
58
166260
3000
02:49
deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep.
59
169260
2000
02:51
The sensor is just a little strip of metal in that headband there.
60
171260
3000
02:54
The rest of it is the bedside console;
61
174260
3000
02:57
just for reference, this is a sleep tracking system from just a few years ago --
62
177260
3000
03:00
I mean, really until now.
63
180260
3000
03:03
And this is the sleep tracking system of today.
64
183260
2000
03:05
This just was presented
65
185260
2000
03:07
at a health care conference in D.C.
66
187260
2000
03:09
Most of what you see there is an asthma inhaler,
67
189260
3000
03:12
but the top is a very small GPS transceiver,
68
192260
3000
03:15
which gives you the date and location
69
195260
3000
03:18
of an asthma incident,
70
198260
2000
03:20
giving you a new awareness
71
200260
2000
03:22
of your vulnerability
72
202260
2000
03:24
in relation to time and environmental factors.
73
204260
3000
03:28
Now, we know that new tools
74
208260
3000
03:31
are changing our sense of self in the world --
75
211260
3000
03:35
these tiny sensors that gather data in nature,
76
215260
3000
03:38
the ubiquitous computing
77
218260
2000
03:40
that allows that data to be understood and used,
78
220260
3000
03:43
and of course the social networks
79
223260
2000
03:45
that allow people to collaborate and contribute.
80
225260
3000
03:50
But we think of these tools as pointing outward,
81
230260
3000
03:54
as windows
82
234260
2000
03:56
and I'd just like to invite you to think of them
83
236260
2000
03:58
as also turning inward
84
238260
2000
04:00
and becoming mirrors.
85
240260
2000
04:02
So that when we think about using them
86
242260
2000
04:04
to get some systematic improvement,
87
244260
2000
04:06
we also think about how they can be useful for self-improvement,
88
246260
3000
04:09
for self-discovery, self-awareness, self-knowledge.
89
249260
3000
04:13
Here's a biometric device:
90
253260
2000
04:15
a pair of Apple Earbuds.
91
255260
2000
04:17
Last year, Apple filed some patents
92
257260
2000
04:19
to get blood oxygenation,
93
259260
2000
04:21
heart rate and body temperature via the Earbuds.
94
261260
3000
04:25
What is this for?
95
265260
2000
04:27
What should it be for?
96
267260
2000
04:29
Some people will say it's for biometric security.
97
269260
2000
04:31
Some people will say it's for public health research.
98
271260
3000
04:34
Some people will say it's for avant-garde marketing research.
99
274260
3000
04:39
I'd like to tell you
100
279260
2000
04:41
that it's also for self-knowledge.
101
281260
2000
04:43
And the self isn't the only thing; it's not even most things.
102
283260
3000
04:46
The self is just our operation center,
103
286260
3000
04:49
our consciousness,
104
289260
3000
04:52
our moral compass.
105
292260
3000
04:55
So, if we want to act
106
295260
2000
04:57
more effectively in the world,
107
297260
2000
04:59
we have to get to know ourselves better.
108
299260
2000
05:01
Thank you.
109
301260
2000

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7