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  3. The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in la

The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in la

admin2012-12-13  41
问题                 The Quantified Self—Counting Every Moment
    The idea of measuring things to chart progress towards a goal is commonplace in large organizations, governments and companies. But this quantitative method is rather less widespread among individuals, with the notable exceptions of people who are trying to lose weight or improve their fitness.
    Most people do not routinely record their moods, sleeping patterns or activity levels, track how much alcohol or coffee they drink or chart how often they walk the dog.
    But some people are doing just these things. What they share is a belief that gathering and analyzing data about their everyday activities can help them improve their lives—an approach known as " self-tracking" or "self-quantifying".
    In some ways this is not a new idea. Athletes and their coaches commonly make detailed notes on nutrition, training sessions, sleep and other variables. Similar strategies have long been used to combat health problems like allergies (过敏). But new technologies make it simpler than ever to gather and analyze personal data. Sensors have shrunk and become cheaper. This makes it much easier to take the quantitative methods used in science and business and apply them to the personal sphere.
    Perhaps unsurprisingly, the notion of marrying technology with self-improvement originated in San Francisco, where Gary Wolf, a journalist and author, co-founded the "Quantified Self" blog in 2007. This led to regular meetings, which are now held in about 50 cities around the world.
    "Almost everything we do generates data. " says Mr. Wolf, "Data from phones, computers and credit cards are mostly used by companies to target advertising, recommend products or spot fraud. But tapping into the stream of data they generate can give people new ways to deal with medical problems or improve their quality of life in other ways. "
Quantify this
    Self-quantifying is being taken seriously by start-ups, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, which are launching new devices and software aimed at self-trackers. It may even provide a glimpse of the future of health care, in which a greater emphasis is placed on monitoring, using a variety of devises, to prevent disease, extend lives and reduce medical costs.
    To see how self-tracking rewards, consider the example of David, an investment banker in London. With his routine of early starts and 11-hour days, he found that he had trouble falling asleep, and worried that this affected his concentration at work. He started using a headband made by Zeo, a startup based in Newton, Massachusetts. It tracks sleep quantity and quality by measuring brainwave activity to determine how long the wearer spends in light, deep and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep.
    David recorded his sleep data along with information on his diet, health supplements, exercise and alcohol consumption, uploading it all onto the Zeo website. He now sleeps for an average of seven-and-a-half hours a night, up from six hours before he began his self-tracking experiment. " I feel more relaxed , sharper and more switched on," he says. " Seeing the facts on your computer screen makes them difficult to ignore. "
    Some self-quantifiers can come across as a little odd. Not everyone carries out experiments to see whether wearing orange glasses or performing regular hopping exercises can improve sleep quality, or whether (as has been claimed) eating butter improves arithmetic ability. An obvious problem is that self-quantification experiments lack strict controls and clinical trials. There could also be placebo (安慰剂) effects.
    "With self-tracking you never really know whether it is your experiment that is affecting the outcome, or your expectations of the experiment," says Nancy Dougherty, a self-tracking enthusiast who works as a hardware engineer at Proteus Biomedical, a medical-devices company in Redwood City, California.
    She found that taking virtual pills labelled "happy" , "calm" , "focus" and "will power" had a noticeable impact, even though she knew they were placebos. But with careful design of experiments there is scope for self-tracking to produce useful data. The Zeo, for example, has already generated the largest-ever database on sleep stages, which revealed differences between men and women in REM-sleep quantity.
Keeping track
    Tens of thousands of patients around the world are already sharing information about symptoms and treatments for hundreds of conditions on websites such as PatientsLikeMe and CureTogether. This has yielded valuable results. The growing number of self-tracking devices now reaching the market will increase the scope for large-scale data collection, enabling users to analyse their own readings and incorporate them with those of other people.
    The thumb-sized Fitbit, for example, made by a company of the same name based in San Francisco , clips onto a belt to measure activity levels and sleep patterns. A readout (读出器) shows steps walked, stairs climbed and calories burned. Information is also uploaded wirelessly to a website that analyses and displays the data and lets users compare notes with their friends. Jawbone, also based in San Francisco, has released the Up, a wristband that communicates with an iPhone and can also measure physical activity and sleep patterns.
    GreenGoose, yet another San Francisco start-up, has devised tiny motion sensors that can be attached to everyday items, sending a wireless signal to a base-station whenever the item is used. A sensor can be attached to a toothbrush, for example, or a watering can, or the collar of a dog, making it possible to measure and track how often you brush your teeth, water your plants or walk your dog. The company’s aim is to establish a platform for the gamification (游戏化) of everyday activities.
    As populations age and health-care costs increase, there is likely to be a greater emphasis on monitoring, prevention and maintaining "wellness" in future, with patients taking a more active role—an approach sometimes called "Health 2.0".
    With their sleep monitors and health dashboards, the aficionados (狂热爱好者) of self-tracking may end up being seen as pioneers of this model. " We were inspired by our knowledge of this history of personal computing. " Mr. Wolf says. " We asked ourselves what would happen if we convened (召唤) advanced users of self-tracking technologies to see what we could learn from each other. "
    Self-tracking may look weird now, but the same was once true of e-mail. And what geeks do today , the rest of us often end up doing tomorrow.
What makes the use of quantitative methods easier in personal daily life?
选项 A、More professional instructors appear.
B、Detailed instructions are released.
C、Media coverage has increased greatly.
D、Devices become smaller and cheaper.
答案D
解析 定位句指出，传感器变小、价格降低，使得原本应用在科学和商务领域的量化方法在个人领域的应用变得更加简单。文中的传感器即是使用量化方法所需要的仪器，故答案为D)。
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