PERSONAL HEALTH RESPONSIBILITY++

2011 The project speculates about the pervasive use of a system for monitoring personal health parameters and the associated implications. Bold Futures developed several near-future scenarios where people are augmented with a stretchable stick-on body electronic skin (using polymer electronics) that autonomously performs rudimentary diagnosis and check up. The system monitors various parameters and reliably draws conclusions about the user’s activity, psychological disposition and state of health. Weak points, problem areas and trends are detected early on and communicated to the user (and possibly to her insurance company, too).

The system nudges its users towards healthy behaviour and rigidly pushes them to some preordained view of what a decent person is: booze-free, non-fat, active, high-performance. While certain illnesses are reliably detected and public health improves, we face an alarmingly illiberal system and society.

Do we want systems that decide for us and that control us (on our behalf!) whilst we’re too fickle to do it ourselves? In what areas of our lives can we live with patronising guidance, where does it become problematic? Would we choose to take up living with an infantilising computer system if it meant to live healthier, longer, more actively? If potentially we wouldn’t even notice the guidance? If the guiding system became an integral part of ourselves that helped us to make the right decisions more often for our own advancement? Ultimately, would we be happier?

When users do not believe The System, conflicts arise.

Insurance companies adjusting the individual insurance rates based on received data.

The state of health of the whole population is monitored and used for epidemics control.