S5E9 - Invasion of the Body Trackers: Apple Watch & the Quantified Self

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Do you wear a FitBit? Fitness trackers are producing more data than ever. But how useful are all these charts and graphs? We dig into the spreadsheets of the Quantified Self to see what kind of person we can find in the numbers.

Meanwhile, as Big Tech companies hoover up data about our resting heart rates, body-fat percentages, and sleep habits, is our own privacy being threatened?

Finally, we ask, “What is a body for?” We turn to Pope John Paul II, a big hitter when it comes to a theology of the body. He offers deep insights about what human freedom truly means, which gives us insight for how fitness trackers might help us live into all that God has for us as his image-bearers.

Notes

A history and analysis of the Quantified Self movement that started in 2008.

The Amazon Halo band: Reviews from The New York Times and The Verge.

A review of Amazon’s custom t-shirt biz.

A summary of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. All his public addresses can be searched for here. Most of Adam’s comments are drawn from this message.

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