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The Data-Driven Life

Posted by kdawson on from the mining-minutiae dept.

theodp recommends a somewhat long and rambling article by Wired's Gary Wolf, writing in the NY Times Magazine, on recording and mining data about your personal life. "In the cozy confines of personal life, we rarely used the power of numbers. The imposition on oneself of a regime of objective record keeping seemed ridiculous. And until a few years ago, it would have been pointless to seek self-knowledge through numbers. But now, technology can analyze every quotidian thing that happened to you today. 'Four things changed,' explains Wolf. 'First, electronic sensors got smaller and better. Second, people started carrying powerful computing devices, typically disguised as mobile phones. Third, social media made it seem normal to share everything. And fourth, we began to get an inkling of the rise of a global superintelligence known as the cloud.' And the next thing you know, exercise, sex, food, mood, location, alertness, productivity, even spiritual well-being are being tracked and measured, shared and displayed."

4 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Don't feel a need to share by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have not joined the need-to-share-everything-about-my-life-with-the-world bandwagon. In fact, I have taken steps backward, such as deactivating my Facebook account (good luck trying to actually delete your account). In the data-driven future I plan to be Blank Reg (look it up). Or possibly a new riff on Luddite could be applied to people like me. Social-site Luddite?

    Of course, the article is about much more than that and it's very interesting, but that's just my mini-rant.

    --
    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. How retarded. by sudog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Superintelligence" known as the cloud?

    There's not even any need to read such tripe. In fact, I hate everyone who read that story after seeing the word "superintelligence" linked with "cloud."

    There is no bound to the contempt writers of pieces like this should be shown, nor to all of the idiots who were involved in reposting it here.

  3. Re:Rise of the Many-to-Many by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That doesn't follow.

    These connections can be made without any user input. You visit a product while logged in to a site, record made. Then you visit another, another record made. Connection between the two products is also made, the products can now show up on a "you may also like.. " list. No need for AJAX or other buzzcronyms.

  4. Huh by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about pretentious writing about the future. Is anyone tracking that?