Gary Wolf: The quantified self

http://www.ted.com At TED@Cannes, Gary Wolf gives a 5-min intro to an intriguing new pastime: using mobile apps and always-on gadgets to track and analyze your body, mood, diet, spending -- just about everything in daily life you can measure -- in gloriously geeky detail.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Gary
• Wolf
• TEDTalks
• TED
• talks
• quantified
• self
• Keving
• Kelly

[nhojflow]

I thought this was ok. Don't see what all the fuss is about...

[KyleJosephSanders]

all this amazing technology and yet, he still choses to use a microphone headset from 1972

[ngeliatduit]

Cool Video!!! ^__^

[juliacotic]

Hi. I saw your cool video.

[xjustamem0ryx]

@jesseshulman

I worry for quality getting lost in the translation to quantity ;(

[aphyd2]

This is the first presentation TED has done in another language. I think the guy was speaking in "Lisp".

[yasirali]

awhh man, really bad presentation!!

[deathbycriter]

anyone else find this guys smile incredibly creepy

[jesseshulman]

Yes, it could've been better, but it introduced the idea that technology is changing the way we define identity. How we construe ourselves now relies less on vague affirmations like "I am hard-working" and more on hard, scientific data, like "I've worked on X 17 hours in the last three days".

When a speaker gives a bad talk based on a cool idea, make it fun! Think about what he should've said. Use it as a diving board for your own musings. This is TED - the point is to stimulate thought.

[roidroid]

@sdrawkcabgnipytmi my comment beats up your comment