Quantifying Body and Mind
Dancy, 45, resides in Denver. He wears a suite of wearable technology products at all times, including a Pebble smartwatch, Google Glass, a BodyMedia armband, and a Blue heart rate monitor, recording data such as his diet, sleep, exercise, email usage, health metrics, travel plans, and photos.
He has also installed various sensing devices in his home to monitor sound, air quality, temperature, and humidity, as well as smart lighting systems and a smart mattress cover that records sleep patterns. Furthermore, he has equipped his two pet dogs with GPS trackers to keep tabs on their daily activities.
With the help of these devices and software, Dancy quantifies his physical condition and emotional fluctuations into numerical data. The British newspaper Daily Mail jokingly dubbed him the "most quantified person in the world" on the 25th.
Understanding to Hack
"When I touch something, I want to be sure that I can use it to get information, and that this information is trackable, accessible, visible, and shareable," Dancy says.
"Today, I know exactly what I should drink, what I should eat, when I should sleep, when I should wake up, and other such simple things," he says. "This is hacking the body and mind. Just as we hack into computers and various types of data, your body and mind are the largest information systems known to humanity; you must understand them to hack them."
Dancy began this rigorous self-monitoring five years ago. Regarding the reason, he says: "I discovered that I was putting a lot of information on the internet, and if a service suddenly shut down, I would lose a lot of relevant information. Therefore, I decided to collect what I create and digitize it. Over the past five years, I have created two or three systems every week."
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Many Followers, No Imitators
Of course, Dancy's goal is not limited to collecting data; he also uses his recorded diet and exercise patterns to push himself to change his lifestyle, successfully losing 45 kilograms.
Some people expressed interest upon learning of Dancy's methods, but no one has followed suit. Dancy is quite surprised by this: "About two and a half years ago, many people told me they wanted to do this or were preparing to, but no one has actually put it into practice. I don't know what the barrier is; to me, it is very simple." He speculates that the reason might be that these people do not understand the value of such information or find it difficult to take the first step.
Many companies are also interested in Dancy's self-monitoring system and hope he will assist in the development of smart products, including smart hats, smart underwear, beverages, and sportswear.
Dancy believes people will use more technology products at home, "not a refrigerator that reminds you that you are out of butter, but a smart lighting system that flashes blue at the door to remind you that it will rain in an hour and to bring an umbrella when you go out." Dancy believes the internet is coming to an end and that the future belongs to the "Innernet" — your own information.