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Know Yourself Intimately

Via GoWearFit

If you're not into gadgets, read this cute, ReadyMade-style post. If EKG machines turn you on, however, then let's talk about the new  GoWear Fit "body monitor" from a company called BodyMedia. The inspiration behind this product is that you might want to keep tabs on your body not just when working out, but also "while shopping, playing with the kids, doing household chores, and sitting at the movies." In other words, says the web site: "When you’re wearing it, you’re measuring your life!" Cut to dimly lit Upper West Side bedroom.

Elliott: "Honey, we just burned 743 calories!"
Ruth: "I have a headache."

But we're only partially mocking. First off, we expect BodyMedia to be hugely successful. They're bringing sophisticated medical technology to the masses, and we, the body-obsessed masses, are likely to eat it up. Also, their business model is clever: You pay once ($160) for the monitor, and then you keep on paying ($7/month) to access their web site to browse all your activity logs. Get this, they've already "helped over 400,000 users monitor 10 million days of activity, burn 10 billion calories, and track 70 billion steps." That sounds expensive.

Now, it's true that several million years of evolution has equipped all of us with a premium, built-in body monitoring system; and it's not at all clear that these after-market products are any improvment. But, well, this stuff IS innovative, and body-centric, and we applaud all that. If you think about it, it's not SO different in focus than certain branches of Tibetan Buddhism. Bottom line: Much better to have smart, geeky types work on accelerometers for our bodies than for, say, nuclear devices; and certainly better than to have them do this than create complex mortgage-backed securities.