Infotality: On Living, Loving, and Dying Through Information

American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 18, 2018 - Issue 2, p. 33-35 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2017.1409832

5 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2018

See all articles by Joel Michael Reynolds

Joel Michael Reynolds

Georgetown University - Department of Philosophy; Georgetown University - Kennedy Institute of Ethics; The Greenwall Foundation; The Hastings Center

Date Written: February 02, 2018

Abstract

Responding to Danaher et al. on self-tracking technologies, I argue that human lived experience is becoming increasingly mediated by generalized, statistical information. I call this our infotality. Drawing on the work of intellectual historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, I argue that infotality is historically novel and best understood as the product of biopolitics, healthism, and informatics. I then critique the authors' "stance of cautious openness,” which misunderstands the aims of the technology in question and the fundamental ambiguity of the role information plays in the achievement of human wellbeing. Self-tracking technologies are not primarily designed to change behavior; they are designed to create and sustain the desire for their use. I conclude by suggesting that infotality names a new way to fall for an old ruse: the promise that more information means more wellbeing.

Keywords: Quantified Self, Bioethics, Data ethics, Biopolitics, Foucault

Suggested Citation

Reynolds, Joel Michael, Infotality: On Living, Loving, and Dying Through Information (February 02, 2018). American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 18, 2018 - Issue 2, p. 33-35 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2017.1409832, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3131996

Joel Michael Reynolds (Contact Author)

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