Ann Helen Petersen, in “Big Mother Is Watching You”, her article from BuzzFeed.com, highlights the rising wave of wearable tracking devices. She describes in detail, many of the new types of wearables, ranging from a simple pedometer that can track an individual’s steps throughout a day, to a type of wearable that records information while attached to a person’s dog. She also writes about some of the conversations that she had with many individuals.
By the end of her article, Petersen narrows in on the point that “the future will be quantified.” Already, many (including some individuals who have already posted on this blog) have wondered if this quantification of the future is a good idea. Should we allow our lives to controlled by machines on our wrists and in our pockets? At what point should we stop? What parts of our health, and in general, our daily lives, should we control?
“That promise of ultimate, seamless simplicity — and the happiness that supposedly accompanies it — will be too much, even for the most suspicious and privacy-conscious among us, to resist.”
At what point do we trade the loss in privacy for the seamless simplicity, and more importantly, the happiness? Presented with these facts, would we not trade a small bit of privacy for a cure to diseases like diabetes and cancer? Do we relinquish our individual information if it can help the greater good? It is possible then, that we could even be trading our idea of reality, a reality run by our own minds, for a reality run by machines, while significantly progressing our understanding of human health in the process. Is this a fair trade? That is the choice we all are going to have to make.