The Quantified Self: Reverse Engineering
The Quantified Self: Reverse Engineering
The Quantified Self (QS) is loosely organized affiliation of self-trackers and toolmakers who meet regularly to discuss what we are learning from our own data. In this essay reflecting on scholarly participation in and criticism of the Quantified Self movement, I argue that the outward similarity between QS projects and the administrative and managerial techniques of population control should not be taken at face value. What seems like naive adoption of biosensing surveillance technologies can instead be seen as a kind of critical mimicry that responds to threats against the self. QS projects are deeply personal, connecting past and future with data that tends to be illegible at a distance.
Keywords: Quantified Self, Temporality, Surveillance, Personal meaning, Selfhood
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