The latest Economist has a lengthy piece here called "The Quantified Self." In short, more and more folks are taking advantage of cheaper technology to keep track of myriads of facts about their daily lives. From the accumulated data, they draw conclusions about such things as what helps them get a better night's sleep and whether consuming real butter makes them better at arithmetic.
All this quantification makes me uneasy. You get what you measure, the old saying goes. And with the quantification of work outputs for virtually every job, we get a "by the numbers" approach to all of life. The triumph of metrics over metaphysics; of statistics over aesthetics; of objectification over love.
But what do I know? And how do I know if I do know it? And how do I know if you believe that I know what I think I know? By checking the "Stats" page and seeing the number of views of this blog, of course!
All this quantification makes me uneasy. You get what you measure, the old saying goes. And with the quantification of work outputs for virtually every job, we get a "by the numbers" approach to all of life. The triumph of metrics over metaphysics; of statistics over aesthetics; of objectification over love.
But what do I know? And how do I know if I do know it? And how do I know if you believe that I know what I think I know? By checking the "Stats" page and seeing the number of views of this blog, of course!
No comments:
Post a Comment