Outsourcing Judgement to Calculation @tiffanyjenkins

Tiff Jenkins in The Scotsman today, writing on the problem of the “Quantified Self” movement. Short, sweet and to the point, so no excuse not to read. A reflection of the danger of applying new app / tech possibilities to exaggerate the slippery slope of giving privilege to those aspects of life that can be objectively quantified.

In summary – outsourcing (value) judgement to (quantifiable) calculation – doesn’t make judgement any easier, rather it bypasses, disconnects judgement from real empirical experience – making it easier to shirk the personal responsibility for applying judgement. What we should really be doing is making it easier for humans to connect to reality and take responsibility for it. Log personal “data”, sure, but treat it as audit / reality check for that human, not as an independent app, or a competitively shared “game”. Judgement is not a popular-voting – bean-counting – democracy.

Guidance of the wise, enslavement of the foolish comes to mind, again.

[Reminds me of the two cases noted earlier, of the UK MP and US Representative, counting the tweets in their inbox before voting on house motions. And – listening to BBC R4 Today interviews by Sarah Montague at the Tory conference – as old as the 20th century (and probably more) – the “cost of living” being objectified – something we can reduce to an index, as one interviewee warns – it’s not some free floating “object”. What matters can’t be measured, etc. Turning “objectives” into “measures” destroys their value …. and a thousand more.]

[Post Note : Another response here.]

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