Jari Sarasvuo - Introduction to the ideological history of self quantification

Dear friends, self quantifiers and biohackers All of you who are interested in optimal performance and breaking boundaries. Welcome to Quantified Self and Biohacking Finland’s second event. It was only March when we had our first meetup. I wanted to share my own personal story. Based on that, I wanted to organize a meetup where self quantifying and biohacking were combined. I told about my idea to different people and that is how I met Mikko Ikola. You are most warmly welcome also on my behalf Great to see that there are so many self quantifiers in Finland. Even though invitation probably didn’t reach everybody yet. I would like to add to Teemu’s speech that Quantified Self actually took off already last year I would like to thank Jari Råglund and Tommi Opas who organized first Quantified Self meetup in Finland Later we got excited with Teemu and we organized a small meetup couple of months ago. About 40 people gathered together in Helsinki at Dicole’s office. The atmosphere was magical. Soon after we decided to arrange a larger, revolutionary event. And here we are now. As William Borroughs said, words are viruses from outer space. Quantified Self, biohacking... They are difficult words in Finnish language. We have discussed about the terminology quite a while. Most likely this is the last QS and Biohacking event in Finnish language. We are going to extend our activities in to the English speaking world. QS is simply an international movement. It is in 33 different countries and there is altogether over 20 000 people involved. Kevin Kelly and Garry Wolf organized the first meetup in 2007 when they noticed people were using different technologies to track their own well-being. In a way the movement begun when the first iPhone was published and different sensors were available for consumers. Seven of us visited Amsterdam where Europe’s largest QS-conference was held We thought that seven Finns was a big number of participants from Finland, but soon after we realized that there actually were twice the amount. There were 15 Finns which was a great achievement in itself. There is a lot to tell from Amsterdam. Few of those things, which have not been discussed in Finland, are life logging and a QS journal which has been planned. QS Journal would bring more credibility on research side of Quantified Self. In Amsterdam, Twitter hashtag was #quantifiedself. We wanted to use the same hashtag also in this event to send Finland’s message to the world. On that screen on the right side you can follow all the tweets The way we see this movement in the international context and in Finland is that we believe that Quantified Self probably will be called an industry in the future. In the same way as the game industry has become some sort of an industry in Finland If you think of the elements of the gamification. When we connect this to domestic, Finnish design expertise and technological talent, I believe there will be many interesting startup companies, interesting products and services to the international markets. We actually could sense it in Amsterdam already. It was clear to everyone that the Finns were there and the Finns had a large presence there. In fact, this event today is already a lot larger than in many big cities, for example... ...for example in Washington. At Amsterdam I spoke with the founder of QS Washington and they had collected about 200 participants in three years. To continue, if you look at the Finnish industry. We already have a lot of companies that can be classified to be part of Quantified Self industry. They do not even necessarily know themselves that they are in this scene. Like Teemu said, it will not take many years when this whole field will be seen as an industry When you think of the history of Finland. And structure of the mind of Finns, we are very engineering minded. If you think of how we built Nokia back in the days. Engineering is what QS is also about. When you give a graph and numbers to a Finn, they understand you a lot better. That is the point they start believing you. This happened to many people I know, who have been sceptic about meditation. When I showed EKG graphs regarding meditation, they finally started to believe it might have a practical impact. The reason why we combined biohacking to the world of QS is the fact that it closely relates to current sensors available. If we look at the participants of this meetup. Here are a few things the audience measures: sleep, exercise, weight, diet and pulse. In a way it comes from the world of health. Many have pedometers, heart rate monitors and so on. Connecting it through the web to big data and through social media to other people, it opens new possibilities for us. I believe this brings interesting people to this community, which is a thing the international QS communities do not have. Many international QS communities have only nerds and coders who are interested in the data Today, we have here for example doctors and psychologists. I believe that this interaction initiates many new, very interesting outcomes. We also have brilliant supporters here with us today. When Jari Sarasvuo visited us we were wondering where we could find a bigger space for this meetup. Of course Jari was inspired and told us that he has always been interested in maximum performance. Now he has offered us these spaces and here we are today. Thank you Jari. Kindly many companies have brought us here some of their own products and services You have an opportunity to explore the products and take a look of the things you can find from those stands and talk with these people. Who knows what positive outcomes those conversations will make Thank you for all the supporters. This is voluntary work and we are building this together We also have a gadget corner. If one of you has a sensor that you cannot find from that table, you can drop it there so that others can see all the different sensors Currently, it is mostly Teemu’s gadget corner. Hopefully it will become a common gadget corner. Here you can see today’s programme that you’ve already seen online. I think we can now give the floor to the host of the evening. The next 15 minutes are given to the host of the evening. We had a surprising encounter with Jari a couple of months ago after one event. I told him, that he might be interested in something I offered to tell him. And kindly he offered to drive me to the next place. Jari listened to my stories and was so inspired that we met again for lunch. He was inspired so much that he offered us this space and even food catering Special thank you for this Jari Dear audience - Jari Sarasvuo. I have to comment the food catering. Without an unhealthy higher status, I dare to say that I have organized more events than you have, altogether. And I don’t say this to discourage you. I just have to say that I have learned one thing If there is an evening event and people’s blood sugar levels start to fall There is a quality in the human body that we can beat ourselves with adrenalin. There are doctors in the audience. You know how fats in the form of triglycerides can be released, especially if you have a good aerobic fitness. They will become more free fats, which are changed in the Krebs cycle again to glucose. But to do that you need anger and annoyance. It is a bad way to beat yourself to concentrate, so is coffee. And you did have the money for the food, but you decided to use it all to this equipment and recordings. I spoke with Mikko today. And Mikko said, that they have ran out of money. I have made a choice. This is a choice of value. Trainers’ House has not sponsored the food I am giving you today. It is from me. I have paid this paleo food myself. I heard quite a long list of things that the food cannot contain. This is lactose-free and gluten-free. This is organic, with all sorts of ORAC values. So I've made an effort so serve you! I will be mad if you won’t eat! Shortly, so there would be a context to all this. I think it is endearing when you, Mikko, have introduced your thoughts of QS to me Because this has been a special exploration for me for over 25 years. This urge to understand myself through facts and numbers. And to steer life with the help of these facts towards your own values. That has been a significant matter in my life. I am 48 years old. I belong to the generation, who got excited of California’s hippie activities I have to say, I was really disappointed. I understand the alternativity and everything they had there But when there were superstitions and nonsense. And these belief systems. It was a terrible experience for me when I realized that these people cannot be taken seriously When I realized… I won’t mention any religious sects because there might be some believers in the audience After all, it was religion. It involved a lot of weird statements which had to do with digestion, human nutrition and improving physical condition. Very strange things. I rejected that world. I rejected that world because of the scientific validation. By the way, In America, they used to say how everything was “science”. I said, not a single part of this was science. This is not science. This is a sort of a belief system… research tradition. It faded away and seriously taken science proved why it had to disappear. It vanished. Now its place has been taken in a very short time... by something that reminds me of something I once rejected. But its ground foundation is completely different. Look - difference of religion and science can be explained with one simple relation: Religion’s relation to the evidence is, that religion searches evidence to strengthen its own truth. Science searches evidence to invalidate its own truth. This is the ground basis of scientific thinking. Evidence is searched to shake current theory and possibly rewrite it. I have spoken to many of you. I always ask for validation. We work with different pharmaceutical companies and numerous innovation companies. This is a pretty familiar world for me. I’m always afraid that I the other person starts to speak this nonsense. You know. For example, dry blood sample is not the same thing as fasting based blood sample taken in laboratory. It’s simply not the same thing. But this here is a very different thing. And I’d like to shortly describe how it relates to the continuum of history of ideologies. And why it raises so much hope in me. It was philosopher Schopenhauer who wisely said that humanity is forever doomed to swing like a pendulum between - pain and boredom. We have a disease related to our own human species. Mostly through history we’ve just suffered terribly... and will continue suffer soon again. If and when we overcome the suffering, we’ll swing to the other extreme - boredom. The reason you are measuring yourselves is because you’re feeling so bloody bored. If we really stop and think about it, we’ll see it is boredom that drives you. You’re eager to continue your journey. You want to step out of your comfort zone. To find new areas in your life. And to explore both yourselves and the world. To get rid of boredom, you’ll have to get familiar with the facts - with the numbers. To once again start gathering information about the world around you. Keep in mind that being comfortable doesn’t equal to being alive. It's the contrary. It’s a numb state of alienation, the kind a creative person could not stand for more than short periods at a time. After a while you’ll want to get back to tasting the real life - to spending time outside your comfort zone. The practice of using facts and numbers to understand yourself and your environment hasn’t really existed, in a serious way, before. The only ones to have done this have so far been doctors or researchers. Now, for the first time, there’s a platform for an interested, ordinary person Person, who might be educated and somewhat ambitious, to get proper information and feedback out of her own body. This helps making more educated choices in life. And not only with regards to one’s physical body but also with regards to your mind. There’s a concept called “extended mind”, which is really interesting. This train of thought was first taken by Abraham Maslow, the father of humanistic psychology. Should you read his legendary essay “Self-actualizing man" you’ll notice how he laid out the guidelines to the path you are now following. Besides Maslow, if you read Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, Niemiec, Rayan, Metch. And Pink, who popularized their work. The specific words and concepts might vary, but underlying story is always the same. A person will need independence, sense of freedom, and autonomy in their life. The feeling that this is my life and that I have the ability to control it. This is a very human urge, and a basis for motivation, self-actualization, and fulfillness. This is what Daniel Pink calls autonomy. And what Detch and Ryan call independence. Another thing a person needs -- whenever she’s healthy, and whenever it is possible -- is to feel like a champion. To experience the fact that she can move forward and succeed. At the core of this all is -- feedback. Garen Brier already proved this -- first with animals, then with humans: if there’s an opportunity to monitor oneself in a rewarding way, a person will put in a ridiculous amount of extra effort only to continue getting new measurements. This explains ultra-marathons and similar phenomena. Given a sensible way of measuring a challenging venture, a person will find motivation to do extremely unpleasant things. There are many athletes here who know exactly what I’m talking of. Feedback. The third point is the most interesting one: there has to be a reason, sense, or purpose for monitoring yourself. This, by far, is not mere number ***. We’re not intrinsically attracted to measuring things. There is something bigger behind this. How many of you have heard of transhumanism? If you haven’t before, you should know that you’re now part of the transhumanistic movement -- given that you’re attracted to Quantified Self. I’m started to laugh aloud, as I recently took a small-scale intellectual and spiritual time off, a kind of a recovery period. I visited a bookstore and bought Dan Brown’s latest novel, Inferno. How many here have read it? Inferno. You know, Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code. What I’m trying to say is, transhumanism will bring about discussions and debates that will properly shake the foundations of our society. There will be a huge opposition. The old structure just can't stand the idea where people are capable of measuring their own health. Of being responsible for their own choices.. Try sending a tweet: “Each person is responsible for his/her own health” You’ll get an echo. Not everyone likes the idea. But we really don't have an alternative to it. Consider society's ability to provide (public) services, and the way services are currently funded. There just is no sensible alternative. And let’s not forget population growth, the biggest problem mankind has faced -- and the way it drives climate change. This is not ***. If you continue this path, you will face fierce ideological discussion, where it’s very difficult to interact anymore, because people don’t know what we are talking about. Everybody speaks about different things. I think that if you are not interested about facts, you have chosen way of dishonesty. It is a choice. I think that if you don’t want to make invisible visible, individual has lost his capability to creative process. One woman freaked out when I told to go skiing with my wife Virpi. I had my very own reasons - I announced how many kilokalories will burn during these four days. She freaked out: “I know nothing more unsexy more unsexy than a man who measures weight" Well, it was her opinion, but it was important for her to say it out loud. I just happened to be interested, right? I have noticed that if I do over 1000 kilocalori exercise, I have to be very careful with eating, so that the third exercise day won’t fail miserably. Of course people are not interested in the same things. But this movement will affect many phenomena that are already out there when you open your eyes, brains and heart. Kaiser Permanente, have you heard about it? Who has heard about Kaiser Permanente? I know. Under these infinite burden of costs this data starts to be interesting. The data will change our society where we live in, and already long before that, early adopters will change their own lives. The first phase -- transactive mind, and where it connects, was alchemy of the time. Alchemy was superstition. But without alchemy there wouldn’t be contemporary chemistry. Society needed alchemy to build up the tools and different disciplines to form a basis. Now, we have moved from alchemy to chemistry. That makes this interesteing. I wish you all have a good evening.