Decoding Tomorrow:
Futurism and Foresights Today

Know Thy Digitised Self

Today I will be dressing up in lycra. Ok, not in that way. I will be gearing up to ride from Surry Hills in Sydney to the iconic Bondi Beach, where I will be meeting up with my friend from TEDGlobal, @JasperVisser, and together we will enjoy a run from Bondi along the coast to Bronte Beach and back. And if I want to, I can share my digitised self on every pedal and step of the way with the world. 

Military GPS technology combined with sensors, smart apps like Nike+ and SportsTracker,  and 3G networks, have enabled my data to be transmitted and turned into intelligence about myself - digitally.

With every click you make, and every breath you take, someone is watching you.

Sometimes with your permission, sometimes without your knowledge. I am a volunteer in the experiment that is your digital self. 

Because of the mobile technology revolution, we are now strapping in, beaming up, and monitoring our every move, calorie, smoke, spend, drink, and snooze. This information is being transmitted to the cloud, and to understand ourselves and our behaviours better, we can log into our desktops or mobiles and access trend charts of our health, finances, klout, status, and blood sugar levels. This is your digital mirror image - your digital self. 

*Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore - morning soccer and jogging.

In management literature, it's been said that what cannot be measured, cannot be managed. Increasingly, in a world eager to push personal and professional development, and constant improvement, in an era of status update anxiety, we can now measure our habits, behaviours, and actions. 24/7/365. I argue that this is part of a massive digital revolution - digital disruption - which will change our behaviours. If it can be measured, it can be managed. Imagine the confusion we used to suffer (still do to some extent) when we had to physically count calories on packets, to work out how big our carbon foot print was mathematically, and when we used our index and expressive fingers to measure our pulse after a strenuous workout. Rough approximations at best. 

Now, a whole new digital self is enabling us to know ourselves better.

In fact you must know thy digitised self, in order to truly improve yourselves.

This might be the paradigm shift we have been waiting for. An ability to take digital data about ourselves and get an insight into how we truly act, eat, sleep and breathe. And this has massive implications. 

Imagine being able to establish a baseline of fitness before that big race for example. I remember running the New York Marathon in 2011, and being able to capture each part of the race by my speed, heart rate, and elevation, and being given a heat map of New York based on my performance. I could deconstuct the Sydney Triathlon in 2012 by the data provided by the organisers and by SportsTracker which gave me a kilometer by kilometer break down of the journey. 

This digitised self also has organisational and business implications. In December 2012 I am keynote speaking at a conference in Las Vegas for an agricultural company specialising in RFID and GPS tagging of cattle. They use this data to monitor the supply chain and the beef throughout the lifecycle, from breeding of the cattle, to the time the inventory gets packaged and branded for consumption. The data they capture in the process provides transparency and traceability. Imagine a life where human beings, and their digitised selves, provide full traceability and transparency about life style choices and insights.

This is 1984 in 2012. Big Brother is watching, and we are opening the curtains on our own lives. 

And this is already happening. Diabetes sufferers monitor and capture their blood sugar data, the FDA has approved an iPhone app as an ultrasound, and insurance companies are now offering lowered premiums to drivers who have RFID technology installed in their vehicles to communicate their driving habits to the insurance companies. Next time you go to your medical specialist or medical insurer, you may not just have to bring your referral or paperwork, they may also want to log in to your Nike+ or AlcoholAware account to check your verified, digital history. 

So what does this all mean for you?

In a world where we are experiencing an overwhelm of data and expectations, the digitised self gives you trends - hindsights, insights, and foresights - on behaviours which may improve or worsen your life. It also means that increasingly, the vendors we use - like insurers, credit card companies, banks, doctors, and financiers - will increasingly ask for your claims to be digitally verified. This is not necessarily something bad - unless you have something to hide...

What do you think - how will the digitised self potentially change your self?

Want to learn more about digital disruption - book Anders as your futurist keynote speaker for your next conference.