Decoding Tomorrow:
Futurism and Foresights Today

Digitised Self: Quantifying Your Analogue Behaviours

In my latest book, Digilogue: how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customer I write about the Digitised Self, and my experience with Nike+, while running the NYC Marathon in 2011.

This is an example of the trend towards what some pundits called Quantified Self. Increasingly, technology is starting to monitor, measure, and make recommendations based on our analogue behaviours. As a futurist I cannot help but be mesmerised about the possibilities this holds for better health management. One of my clients in the pharmaceutical industry asked me about which digital tools I use to monitor my health, and how I attain my health and fitness goals, so I thought I'd share the some the Digilogue tools I use at the intersection of futurist and health in this blog.

23andMe is a biotest which sequences and analyses your DNA. In this case I have recently left my saliva sample, and am awaiting my results to show me my genetic predispositions to certain diseases, my ethnic background, whether old family tales of milkmen might be true, and how Neanderthal I might be. 

Check out the futuristic blog here.

This to my is very Digilogue. The data monitoring starts providing a digital and easily monitored mirror on your analogue behaviours, life styles, and genetic make up. Something that was totally inconceivable and cost-prohibitive 10 years ago. 23andMe charged me $ 99 to code my DNA sequence. The initial Human Genome Project was a $ 3 billion USD project, and now this mapping is a consumer product. Amazing!

Thank you Moore's Law. 

One of the mHealth applications I use is Withings. I use both the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor featured above as well as the Withings Wireless Scale, which help me monitor my heart health, and also help me attain my fitness and health goals, by creating a virtuous feedback loop based on my diet and exercise. 

This sort of feedback has been priceless for me in following a particular exercise and diet regime in 2013, and as you can see from the digital data points below, I am starting to hit my weight targets (although I had a spike in weight over the weekend as a deliberate result of overeating while friends were in town - something that the data points clearly captured...)

The other tool that I quite like is the Zeo ZQ monitor, which is a headband that I wrap around my head to monitor my sleep, and to get advice on how to optimise my REM sleep, and productivity. Here are some of the results of this gamification.

And here you can see the data visualisation of my sleeps in the month of May...

As a futurist keynote speaker and global traveller, my sleep is incredibly important to me, so this data helps me figure out how to manage this side of my health and ensure I deal with the effects of jet lag in an optimum way.

Another tool that I am sold on as you know is Nike+ and the Nike FuelBand. It helped me run the NYC 2011 Marathon in a very Digilogue way, but I also love the interface which visually provides feedback and comparisons on how I am doing. 

Similarly, it shows the progression and comparisons from day to day and from month to month. 

As you can tell, the days when I go jogging or play squash I attain my goals, and on days when I travel or remain sedentary I don't. Yes, we can get a sense of this from our analogue gut feel - no pun intended - but this sort of feedback tells a digital data oriented individual like me that I need to pick up my analogue game from time to time. 

So what you may ask - increasingly patients and people are taking their health and personal matters into their own hands. This is a mobile and health revolution that any company - pharmaceutical, outdoor equipment, vitamin, medical device etc - need to be aware of and utilise to ensure better health outcomes to the populace. It also means that we as consumers and patients are expecting more. 

In a sense, the patient is getting impatient and applying pressure on healthcare providers to step up to the plate and offer even better Digilogue monitoring and advice-based mobile platforms. 

*Please note that the above is not an endorsement of the veracity or medical usefulness of any of these devices or tests, but are a personal reflection of what I use based on my unique circumstances. In my own digilogue eccentricity I have found these devices helpful in attaining my fitness and health goals. You should of course consult a GP or doctor to make your own decisions. 

If you're looking for a futurist keynote speaker for your next healthcare conference, enquire with us today and check Anders Sorman-Nilsson's availability with OdeManagement.com today.