Quantified Self

Quantified Self is a movement based around lifelogging. That is to say, based around using biohacking tools and techniques to quite literally log every aspect of the inputs into a person's life in order to (in theory) become master of the outputs. Quantified selves are people who as the name implies, are able to quantify every aspect of what makes them who they are, down to the smallest minutiae.

Since such a level of knowledge about the inputs to one's own life is of course, superhuman, quantified selves make use of substantial technology in order to automate data collection about themselves and their daily lives in order to augment manual records, and provide as complete level of precision as possible. As such they tend to be cybernetically enhanced organisms, with computers and peripheral devices worn about the body, sewn into their clothes, or implanted under their skin.

To be a member of the quantified self movement you have to be a lifelogger, and this means keeping complete track of all the inputs to your body. Things such a what food you eat, what fluids you drink, what air qualities you were exposed to, how long for and when. Ideally knowing what compounds were in the air you were breathing, what you saw throughout your day (some lifeloggers use recording cameras to augment their vision for this purpose). Even going to the point in some individuals where you record every interaction you had with another person or object throughout your day, and the thoughts and moods that interaction left you with.

All this, and often so much more is required to be a quantified self. after all, the end goal is complete knowledge of every possible input into your life.

At the greatest extreme, quantified selves go so far as to use long-term EEG caps and even ECoG implantable brain-surface arrays to monitor and record their brainwaves in real-time, to again gain a fuller understanding of every possible input into their system. This allows them to catch sensory input they might otherwise have missed, as well as to detect their own state of alertness amongst other elements.

They are a form of transhumanist, who have come as a group to the conclusion that the way forward past many of the supposed limitations of the human body, is to optimise that body, and squeeze the best performance possible out of it. In so doing they show all transhumanists of every stripe where the real bottlenecks in the human form are, when the system is working at an otherwise high efficiency level. Many of them also give back in the form of the ever more intricate and capable body area networked monitoring devices, which have applications throughout medical care, and augmented / virtual reality.

See Also: Lifelogger, Transhumanist, Transhumanist, Biometrics, Biohacker, Biohacking, Grinder, Wearable Computing, Smart Prosthetic, Neural Interface, BCI, Biopunk, BAN, EEG, ECoG

Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.

Quantified Self

Results by page [1]   

Results by page