The debate concerning the Quantified-Self Movement (QS) has been extremely polarised. As Tamar Sharon has pointed out, each aspect of the lifestyle promoted by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly has provoked opposite reactions, generating a debate that revolves around some basic conceptual dichotomies: empowerment versus surveillance, self-awareness versus reductionism, personalized healthcare versus disintegration of public assistance (Sharon 2017). 

If many ethical and political problems are the focus of the discussion, however, very few studies question the notion of “self-tracking” itself, which is at the base of the idea of QS. The aim of this paper is to provide a critique of QS, namely an assessment of its limits and its (technological and social) conditions of possibility, by analysing how the quantification process actually works. I will show that, far from being a process of self-tracking, QS implies a new form of cognitive and practical delegation (Morozov 2013; Ippolita 2015). 

At first, this delegation regards each individual, as he no longer needs to be self-aware of his own actions, or to re-elaborate them in narrative form. Traditional medicine required an interaction between patient and doctor: medicine as a technique functioned as a set of practices aimed at integrating another set of individual and social techniques, what the Greeks called epimeleia eautou, namely self-care.  Part of these techniques was the ability to collect, select and present data about our own body, our own health status. With QS, this whole set of practices is delegated to a device which is no longer us, an instrument external to the patient. Individuals do not track themselves anymore: on the contrary, they are tracked by prosthetic extensions of their own bodies. 

These devices are connected with a complex technological system made of GPSs, satellites, computers and networks. Health is no longer managed through a distinct set of practices within the limits of a well-defined space (the hospital or the ambulatory), but it rather becomes a data set integrated in a system where all the aspects of life (health, law, leisure, work, social relations) are treated and managed simultaneously. Self-tracking must therefore be regarded from the standpoint of design (Dyer 2016): it reshapes the social and political function of bodies, their interaction and the set of practices connected to them.

_References:

_{Dyer J., 2016, Quantified Bodies. A Design Practice, in “Digital Culture and Society”, 2, 1, pp. 161-167.}

_{Foucault M., 1984, Histoire de la sexualité 3 : Le souci de soi, Paris : Gallimard.}

_{Foucault M., 2001, L’Herméneutique du sujet, Paris : Gallimard.}  

_{Ippolita, 2015, Anime elettriche, Milano: Jaca Book.}

_{Morozov E., 2013, To save everything click here, London: Allen Lane.} 

_{Sharon T., 2017, Self-Tracking for Health and the Quantified Self: Re-Articulating Autonomy, Solidarity and Authenticity in an Age of Personalized Healthcare, in “Philosophy and Technology”, 30, 1, pp. 93-121.}

This paper approaches the matter of the ‘quantified body’ through the psychosocial riddle of ‘anxiety’. I will be exploring the changes in the diagnosis of anxiety through the 20th century in light of a shift in the mode of governance, the status of the body and their relation to modern psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis. A critical analysis of the current status of anxiety, its diagnosis and treatment within the hegemonic discourses of the field of psy reveals an equation of body, psyche and ideology consonant with contemporary modes of consumption and discourses of wellbeing.

The reduction of the subject to a productive-biological body can be traced by mapping of the trajectory of diagnosing anxiety in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) since the mid-20th century. A clear motor of the grammar of anxiety is its intricate relation to the rise in both the diagnosis of depression as well as the use of psychopharmaceutic drugs during this same period. Anxiety moves from ubiquitous yet pathological to a ‘mere’ aspect of general depression, remaining, nonetheless ‘unwanted’, especially when eliminated or managed via medication. Such diagnostic culture is framed by a logic of categorisation and control of the body, which becomes a particularly complex locus of ‘dividualisation’ and loss of the possibility of experience of subjective truth in symptoms that anchor the psychoanalytic conception of anxiety.  Via this journey of diagnosis, it is possible to grasp aspects of contemporary capitalism implicated in the relationship to one's body and wellbeing, making way for an extrapolated mode of consumption under the label of wellness.

I argue that by consistently pathologizing and working towards the elimination of anxiety, the hegemonic clinic erases the possibility of such ‘subjective truth’ (Lacan, 1962), reducing the subject to the status of ‘dividual’ (Deleuze, 1992). This reduction comes through the management of the body and its affects or, its productivity. Instead of thinking through the problematic prism of the emancipatory ‘value’ of suffering from anxiety, I propose rather, a discussion on the emancipatory possibilities of the current politics of desire- which cross the body, diagnosis and treatment. Precarization, financializaton and quantification are at the backbone of a mode of governmentality that promotes an ‘estrangement’ to one’s affects and carries political consequences.

Les technologies numériques de quantification des corps (dispositifs connectés, capteurs, objets connectés, applications, données, algorithmes) se sont considérablement développées pour offrir de nouvelles formes de soins pour les usagers en particulier pour le suivi des maladies chroniques (Hood, 2010). En revanche, il ressort également que ces technologies font souvent l’objet d’applications sans véritable évaluation, ni concertation entre professionnels de santé, industriels et usagers (Ranck, 2012).

Ce manque d’évaluation soulève de nombreuses questions sur le couplage permanent et automatisé entre organisme physique (Mead, 1963) et données numériques (Simondon, 1958 ; Boullier, 2016) qui ne sont pas pris en compte dans la conception des dispositifs de mesure du corps (boucle de rétroaction, automatisation, etc.). Les formes de design utilisées aujourd’hui sont essentiellement basées sur des approches behavioristes, dont le postulat est de changer les individus en agissant directement sur leur corps en activant leurs biais cognitifs dans le but de leurs faire adopter de nouveaux comportements ou d'orienter leurs choix et décisions (Bergeron, 2018). Plus connues sous les noms de Design persuasif, de Captology (Fogg, 2002) ou encore de Nudges (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) ces approches comptent parmi ces stratégies d’influence qui connaissant un engouement aux Etats-Unis depuis quelques années avec l’essor de la psychologie positive et de l’économie comportementale (Serra, 2017). Habituellement utilisées dans les domaines de la communication et du marketing digital, ces stratégies sont désormais implémentées dans la conception des dispositifs objets connectés où elles peuvent prendre des formes inattendues, tels que les systèmes de « Gamification » (Wiston, 2013) que l’on retrouve dans les traceurs d’activité́« Nike+ » ou « Fitbit », qui en orientant la gestion des pratiques de santé par le jeu permet l’acceptation d’une nouvelle pratique. Si ce type de design peut être utile dans certain cas, il constitue néanmoins une forme contemporaine de biopouvoir (Lupton, 2016) i.e. une forme de comportementalisme algorithmique qui intervient sur les corps et les façonnent. On voit que ce design soulève de nombreuses questions d’ordre épistémologique, méthodologique et éthique quant aux risques de réduire l’humain à ses comportements captés par un algorithme, ou encore d’agir sur les comportements par la persuasion.

Cette communication vise à contribuer au développement d’un design des technologies de quantification des corps. Dans un premier temps, à l’appui de nos terrains d’étude (Arruabarrena, 2016) et dans une perspective critique du design comportementaliste, nous proposons une analyse des enjeux de conception des technologiques de quantification des corps. Dans un second temps, nous proposons selon une approche info communicationnelle (et sociocognitive) à l’appui des théories de l’activité et du modèle Learning by expanding d’Engeström (1999, 2014), un (méta) modèle de conception des technologies de quantification des corps focalisé sur la médiation.

***

The digital technologies for the quantification of bodies (connected devices, sensors, connected objects, applications, data, algorithms) have increased significantly in recent years to offer new forms of care for users, particularly for monitoring chronic diseases (Hood, 2010). Howerver, it appears that these technologies are often the subject of applications without evaluation or dialogue between health professionals, industry and users (Ranck, 2012). 

This lack of evaluation raises many questions about the permanent and automated coupling between physical body (Mead, 1963) and digital data (Simondon, 1958, Boullier, 2016) that are not taken into account in the design of measurement devices of the body (feedback loop, automation, etc.). The forms of design used today are essentially based on behaviorist approaches, whose postulate is the individual change by acting directly on the body. These approaches proceeds by activating their cognitive biases in order to make them adopt new behaviours or guide their choices and decisions (Bergeron, 2018). More commonly known as Persuasive Design, Captology (Fogg, 2002) or Nudges (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008), these approaches are among those influencing strategies that have been popular in the United States in recent years. development of positive psychology and behavioral economics (Serra, 2017). Usually used in the fields of communication and digital marketing, these strategies are now implemented in the design of connected devices where they can take unexpected forms, such as "Gamification" systems (Wiston, 2013) that we found in the "Nike +" or "Fitbit" activity tracers, which by guiding the management of health practices through play allows the acceptance of a new practice.

While this type of design may be useful in some cases, it is nevertheless a contemporary form of biopower (Lupton, 2016) i.e. a form of algorithmic behaviourism that intervenes on the bodies and shapes them. We see that this design raises many epistemological, methodological and ethical questions about the risks of reducing the human to his quantified, modelled and automated behaviors by algorithms without taking into account the effects on the bodies.

This communication aims to contribute to the development of a design of body quantification technologies. Firstly, in support of our study areas (Arruabarrena, 2016) and in a critical perspective of behavioral design, we propose an analysis of the design issues of body quantification technologies. Secondly, we propose an info communicational (and sociocognitive) approach in support of Engeström's theories of activity and model Learning by expanding (1999, 2014), a (meta) -model of design of body quantification technologies focused on mediation.

^{Références :}

^{Arruabarrena, B. (2016). Le Soi augmenté: les pratiques numériques de quantification de soi comme dispositif de médiation pour l'action (Thèse de doctorat). Paris : CNAM.
Bergeron, H., Castel, P. et Dubuisson-Quellier, S. (2018). Le biais comportementaliste. Presses de Sciences Po. Engeström, Y. (1999b). Learning by Expanding : An Activity - Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research. Consulté le 30 décembre 2004, http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Engestrom/expanding/toc.htm
Engeström, Y. (2014). Learning by expanding. Cambridge University Press.
Fogg, B. J. (2009, April). A behavior model for persuasive design. In Proceedings of the 4th international Conference on Persuasive Technology (p. 40). ACM.
Hood, Médecine 4P pour Prédictive, Préventive, Personnalisée et Participative, 2010, http://p4mi.org
Mead, G. H. (2001) (1ere éd. 1963). L'esprit, le soi et la société. Paris, Collection Le lien social, PUF.
Lupton, D. (2016). The Quantified Self, Wiley.
Ranck, J. (2012). The quantified self: Hacking the body for better health and performance. GigaOM.
Sadin, E. (2013). L’humanité augmentée. L’administration numérique du monde, Montreuil, L’Echappée.
Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Leonard, T. C. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness.}

The historiography of clinical trials, at least in Britain, has tended to focus on a single trial - the randomised controlled trial of streptomycin as a treatment for tuberculosis organised by the UK Medical Research Council in the late 1940s. What the standard account ignores is the subject of this paper, which draws on a series of clinical trials organised in the Scottish city of Glasgow in the 1930s which barely feature in the conventional account of the development of clinical trials. 

In recovering the context in which the Glasgow clinical trials took place three factors stand out. Firstly, the practice operated by the Glasgow Corporation of treating most cases of skin infection by isolating patients from their community through hospitalisation. Secondly, the highly organised interconnectivity between voluntary and state-funded hospitals in Glasgow at the time. Thirdly, connecting exclusion and the organisation of medical practice, a belief in the meaningfulness of aggregate measures of human attributes.  

These factors can be given names. The first is the moral economy of medicine - the practice of establishing fever and isolation hospitals as part of hospital provision in Glasgow in the nineteenth century. The second is the political economy of medicine - the relationships among doctors, especially the degree of interconnectedness between the health systems associated with the University of Glasgow and the Corporation of Glasgow. The third is the mathematisation of causality - in this case the biometric sensibilities of Thomas Anderson: his understanding of, expertise, and belief in, the efficacy of quantification as a means of progress in scientific medicine. 

O objeto teórico parte de um evento, cronologicamente situado no final do século XIX, a descoberta dos raios X por William Conrad Röentgen e a construção do conhecimento entre anatomia, imagens e descoberta científica. A hipótese teórica e acadêmica questiona o conhecimento inicialmente construído em uma Europa animada por ideais de várias taxonomias e classificações, de ideologias eugênicas, que o discurso do corpo foi construído ao longo do século XX e que legitima o normal e o patológico na anatomia. O foco está nos últimos 50 anos desta descoberta. As questões teóricas refletem sobre as imagens digitais de hoje, que resultam em um corpo construído e "renderizado": esse corpo pode ser lido como uma produção de contornos "eugênicos"? Pode se tornar um dispositivo tecnológico manipulador? Apresenta uma revisão histórica da eugenia e sua atualidade, o conceito de corpo binário / digital e o “Projeto Humano Visível”, a construção e processo de “renderização / reformatação” do corpo médico até o século XXI. Tecnologias de visualização médica como dispositivos de mapeamento do corpo humano que são fatiados, fragmentados, reformatados, alterados, obtendo essas tecnologias imagens disciplinadas de acordo com visibilidades específicas. Trabalhamos na ideia do corpo como um produto / objeto infinitamente maleável pelo poder, e como através de "normas" e "disciplinas" eles estão alinhados com as tecnologias. Ponderamos sobre um cruzamento interdisciplinar entre o que poderia ser a agenda da eugenia nos nossos dias e as tecnologias de visualização médica. Utilizando como veículo processual das radiografias de Röentgen às imagens 3D, da construção social do corpo, da ciência, e de alguns conceitos de Michel Foucault. Procuramos uma leitura sobre esta temática e os dispositivos saídos dos equipamentos médicos, os quais lhe está associada uma determinada expertise sustentada em conjuntos de classificações sob a forma de padrões de normalidade.  Considerações finais sobre as formas utilizadas pelas novas tecnologias de visualização médica e a forma como reformam, modificam e reconstroem expandindo constantemente os limites do corpo.

***

The theoretical object starts from an event, chronologically situated in the late nineteenth century, the discovery of X-rays by William Conrad Röentgen and the construction of knowledge between anatomy, images and scientific discovery. The theoretical and academic hypothesis questions the knowledge initially constructed in a Europe animated by ideals of various taxonomies and classifications, of eugenic ideologies, that the body discourse was built throughout the twentieth century and that legitimizes the normal and the pathological in anatomy. The focus is on the last 50 years of this discovery. The theoretical questions reflect on today's digital images, which result in a constructed and "rendered" body: can this body be read as a production of "eugenic" contours? Can it become a manipulative technological device? It presents a historical review of eugenics and its actuality, the concept of binary / digital body and the “Visible Human Project”, the construction and process of “rendering / reformatting” of the medical body until the 21st century. Medical visualization technologies such as human body mapping devices that are sliced, fragmented, reformatted, altered, and these technologies obtain disciplined images according to specific visibility. We work on the idea of ​​the body as a product / object infinitely malleable by power, and how through "norms" and "disciplines" they are aligned with technologies. We ponder an interdisciplinary cross between what could be the eugenics agenda today and medical visualization technologies. Using as a procedural vehicle the radiographs of Röentgen to 3D images, the social construction of the body, science, and some concepts of Michel Foucault. We are looking for a reading on this subject and devices coming from medical equipment, which is associated with a certain expertise sustained in sets of classifications in the form of standards of normality. Final considerations about the ways in which new medical visualization technologies are used and how they constantly reform, modify, and rebuild by expanding the limits of the body.

É possível uma quantificação de um corpo “são” em MTC? Qual a conceção de corpo que está na base desta prática milenar? (Taoísmo e Confucionismo) Podemos estabelecer algum paralelo com a nossa herança pré-socrática ou aristotélica? Que pertinência tem, nos nossos dias, esta temática nos cuidados de saúde? Estas são as questões que nos propomos pensar, de forma a contribuir para uma reflexão sobre a saúde nos nossos dias. Julgamos poder fazê-lo, mostrando de que forma a visão oriental do corpo e da saúde podem ser mais uma ferramenta para minorar os efeitos negativos das interpretações da mecanização moderna do corpo, no campo da saúde e do cuidado, na saúde.

***

Is a quantification of a healthy body possible in TCM? What body conception underpins this millennial practice? (Taoism and Confucianism) Can we draw any parallel to our pre-Socratic or Aristotelian heritage? What relevance has this theme in health care today? These are the questions that we propose to think in order to contribute to a reflection on health today. We think we can do so by showing how the oriental view of body and health can be another tool to alleviate the negative effects of interpretations of modern mechanization of the body in the field of health and care on health.

O progresso tecnológico ilustrado pelas Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs), por meio de recursos de Big Data, Computação Ubíqua, Tecnologia Wearable e outras tecnologias digitais pervasivas, trouxe facilidades não só para o mundo dos negócios e de organizações públicas, mas também para a vida cotidiana. O barateamento de sensores e de outros recursos de hardware e software, de conexões em alta velocidade e de armazenamento e circulação de dados transformou significativamente a realidade, chegando às residências “automatizadas” e ao pós-humano. Nesse contexto, o nosso objetivo é discutir o conceito de Ambiente Inteligente e as consequências de seu emprego no projeto de quantificação dos corpos. Como observam Remagnino, Foresti & Ellis (2005), esse conceito é empregado para representar a situação de ambientes em que pessoas e dispositivos de tecnologia digital estão conectados e sempre online. Em ambientes inteligentes quase tudo é medido, desde a pressão arterial e os batimentos cardíacos à quantidade de líquido que se deve ingerir frente a uma atividade física. Desse modo, o indivíduo pode acabar transferindo a outrem, incluindo produtos tecnológicos inteligentes, a responsabilidade de decidir sobre suas próprias necessidades vitais. De acordo com Peppet (2014), juntos, esses “produtos de consumo” mudam fundamentalmente o conhecimento que temos de nós mesmos, dos outros e do meio ambiente. Daí a necessidade e urgência de se refletir sobre o que significa para o ser humano perder a capacidade, em termos práticos, de ficar offline. Nesse sentido, a questão sobre a qual nos propomos refletir é: Quais as implicações pragmáticas e éticas de modificação no modelo de organização da sociedade contemporânea, no comportamento dos indivíduos e em suas formas de autoconhecimento? Argumentamos que, com a ubiquidade das TICs, vivenciamos uma revolução não só digital, mas comportamental.

***

Technological progress, brought about by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), involving Big Data, ubiquitous computing, wearable technology, and other pervasive digital technologies, has provided facilities not only to business and public organizations, but also in the daily lives of people. The decreasing costs of sensors and other hardware and software resources, together with high-speed connections and data storage and transfer, have significantly transformed human existence, arriving at “automated” homes and posthumanism. The purpose of the present work is to discuss the concept of Intelligent Environment and the possible consequences of its use in the quantification of bodies. As observed by Remagnino et al. (2005), this concept is used to represent environments in which people and digital technology devices are connected and are always online. In intelligent environments, almost everything is measured, ranging from blood pressure and heartbeat to the amount of fluid that should be ingested during physical activity. In this way, the individual may end up delegating to external agents, including smart technology products, the responsibility for determining his/her requirements. According to Peppet (2014), these “consumer products”, taken together, fundamentally change our understanding of ourselves, others, and the environment. Hence, there is an urgent need to consider what it means for the human being to lose the ability, in practice, to be offline. The question that forms the basis for our reflection is as follows: What are the pragmatic and ethical implications of alteration of the organizational model of contemporary society, in terms of the behavior of individuals and their forms of self-knowledge? We argue that in the presence of ubiquitous ICTs, we experience a revolution that is not only digital, but also behavioral.

Il presente lavoro intende indagare il rapporto tra spazio e vita quotidiana, interpretandolo attraverso la lente della filosofia del filosofo francese Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991). Nella prima parte del saggio verrà approfondito il concetto di “produzione dello spazio” allo scopo di chiarire le modalità e i criteri con cui le scienze dello spazio modellano e strutturano la forma del tessuto urbano. Mostreremo allora come la forma spaziale originata dalla pianificazione territoriale tracci in realtà una geografia urbana fatta di prescrizioni e divieti per i corpi che la percorrono, che ricalca e riproduce l’ordine e la struttura politici. Gli utenti dello spazio infatti, che si spostano tra i reticoli stradali e che ne frequentano i punti nevralgici, sono costantemente sottoposti a una sorta di ortopedia spaziale che li esorta a determinate pratiche e performance. La seconda parte sarà invece dedicata alla critica di Lefebvre alla machine-à-habiter di Le Corbusier (1887-1965) con l’obiettivo di far emergere emergere il contrasto tra l’”abitare poietico” e l“habitat” funzionalista, quest’ultimo basato sulla scala antropometrica “Modulor”.

***

The present work aims at investigating the relation between space and everyday human life through the lens of Henri Lefebvre’s (1901-1991) Philosophy of Space. In the first part, the concept of Production of Space will be deepened, showing how Space Sciences and their Masters are responsible for translating the political and economic order into spatial practice. As a planned surface, space aims to guide and prescribe routes and maps to its users. In this sense, the geography of the city can be considered an orthopedic tool which orientates and claims certain Spatial Practices and Performances. The second part will be dedicated to Lefebvre’s critique of Le Corbusier’s concept of "machine-à-habiter", where the domestic space is coded and arranged through the anthropometric Modulor scale.

La relazione si propone di presentare l’interpretazione del corpo umano descritta da Xavier Bichat (1771-1802), in particolare nelle Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort.  Il medico francese apre le Recherches definendo la vita come «L’unione delle funzioni resistenti alla morte», annunciando così la natura reagente della vita. Tale «ensemble des fonctions» è un dato quantificabile, nella misura in cui Bichat raggruppa e separa gli organi in relazione alle funzioni e caratteristiche. L’insieme delle funzioni vitali costituisce la vie organique, l’insieme delle funzioni inerenti al conoscere, la vie animale. Gli elementi propri alle due vite, quali l’assimilazione e la decomposizione, la simmetria e l’asimmetria, l’intermittenza e la continuità sono misurabili. Nondimeno, nel contempo, l’«ensemble des fonctions» è un dato che sfugge a una misurazione esatta, giacché le funzioni di un organo variano a seconda di molteplici condizioni e circostanze, inoltre innumerevoli e variabili sono le relazioni che intercorrono tra un organo e un altro, che ne determinano le funzioni.  Emblematica dell’impossibilità di descrivere e quantificare l’insieme delle funzioni che compone il corpo vivente è una considerazione in cui Bichat spiega che una misurazione esatta è possibile solo per i corpi fisici, e non anche organici: «Si calcola il ritorno di una cometa, si misurano le resistenze, che un fluido soffre percorrendo un canale inerte, si può stabilire la velocità di un proiettile: ma calcolare con Borelli la forza di un muscolo, con Keil la celerità del sangue, con Jourine, Lavoisier, ecc. la quantità d’aria che s’introduce nei polmoni, è lo stesso che innalzare un edifizio solido per se stesso, sulla mobile arena, il quale va tosto a cadere per mancanza di una base sicura». Ebbene, la quantificazione esatta è pressoché impossibile. Analogamente, se la bile, il rossore, la lacrimazione sono espressione di un sentimento, questo tuttavia non significa che vi sia la possibilità di quantificare esattamente la rabbia, l’imbarazzo, il dolore. Non è possibile dedurre precisamente un sentire da un’espressione corporea.  Intento della proposta è dunque di tratteggiare brevemente la «vie fulgurante» e i lavori di Xavier Bichat, per dare la misura della sua tensione alla medicina, pensata come sapere mediano tra arte e scienza proteso alla comprensione della vita; e di soffermarsi in particolare su Le ricerche, che illustrano quanto il corpo umano oscilli tra una possibilità di misurazione e l’impossibilità di dedurre esattamente un funzionamento, un sentire o un pensiero da una precisa quantità.

***

The paper aims to illustrate Xavier Bichat’s (1771-1802) interpretation of human body, especially with reference to the Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort. 

At the beginning of the Recherches, the french doctor defines life as «the totality of those functions which resist death», introducing in this way the reactive nature of life.  The «ensemble des fonctions» is a quantifiable datum, since Bichat assembles and distinguishes the organs in relation to functions and features. Vital functions constitute what Bichat calls vie organique, functions related to knowledge constitute vie animal. The elements belonging to this division of life, such as assimilation and decomposition, symmetry and asymmetry, intermittence and continuity are measurable. Nonetheless, «l’ensemble des fonctions» is a datum which can’t be completely measured, since organs’ functions change in relation to several conditions and situations, furthermore the relations between organs are various and variable and they influence their functions. 

An emblematic consideration explains that according to Bichat it is possible to measure only physical bodies and not organic ones: «One may calculate the return of a comet, the resistance of a fluid passing through an inert canal, the swiftness of a projectile, &c.; but to calculate with Borelli the force of a muscle, with Keil the quickness of the blood, or like Jurine, Lavoisier, &c. the quantity of air which enters into the lungs, is to build a solid edifice upon rolling sand, which must soon fall for want of a fixed foundation». A perfect and complete quantification is impossible. Similarly, bile, redness and lacrimation are expression of a feeling, but this does not mean that it is possible to quantify the anger, the embarrassment and the pain. It is not possible to deduce a feeling from a corporeal expression. 

So, the proposal aims to briefly present Bichat’s «vie fulgurante» and works, to show his inclination to medicine, thought as a median knowledge between art and science, aimed at the understanding of life; furthermore, the purpose is to linger on the Researches, which show how human body places between the possibility of a quantification and the impossibility to exactly deduce a function, an emotion or a thought from a quantity.

Triage, vg. the processes and techniques for the classification and selection of patients according to their severity and life condition, is a standardized method of quantification and rank-ordering in medicine. Based on saving as many lives as possible and making the best use of available resources, triage is a usual calculation proceeding in mass casualty incidents. In disasters, be they natural or antropogenic, multiple victims are involved that exceed the capacities and resources of emergencies available to face the necessary help. As in other areas of public health, the prevailing bioethical criterion in such cases of allocation of resources is not the principle of autonomy, according to which each individual should be treated as irreplaceable and unique, nor is the free and personal relationship between doctor and patient as basic as in normal clinic situations, nor is the confidentiality of personal data considered inviolable. Rather than the rule “everything for everyone”, in disaster scenarios consequentialist criteria prevail that call for the greatest good for the greatest number and that give priority to the reduction of both suffering and loss of life and to the selection of patients who are more likely to survive. In a sense, the rights and care of populations triumph over the unavailability of each person’s dignity as a human being. Consequently, organisms are quantitatively represented by the triage methods and some of these, such as the Revised Trauma Score-RTS or the Prehospital Trauma Index-PTI, even categorize the patients with numerical scores. The numbering is equally characteristic of registration and labeling, particularly by the medical emergency triage tags, which allow to identify the injured and visualize their classification.

In recent decades, deep medicine and e-health, with a new range of technologies (electronic health record, telemedicine, m-health, etc.), are being extended to the public health and more specifically to the medical field of disaster analysis and management. Big data and other information technologies (cloud computing, internet of things and social networking) are involved in the coordination and integration of all activities that include the disaster management cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. A current challenge of public health in disasters concerns the ways of integrating these technologies and implementing protocols such as the electronic triage. Arguably, bioethical problems in this regard will become even more acute and new ones start cropping up.

Nel capitolo sulla Ragione osservativa della Fenomenologia dello spirito Hegel offre un’esposizione della sua comprensione della struttura concettuale dell’organismo vivente e del rapporto tra l’individualità e il suo corpo fisico caratterizzata da una notevole rilevanza storica e sistematica. In queste pagine, infatti, Hegel non espone la sua teoria dogmaticamente, quanto invece nell’ambito di un confronto con la scienza e la filosofia della natura del suo tempo, entrambe caratterizzate dal tentativo di esprimere per mezzo di nessi quantitativi le caratteristiche essenziali dell’organico. In questo contributo cercherò di mettere in luce gli elementi generali della critica che Hegel porta a questi indirizzi di pensiero e di mostrare per quale motivo egli ritenga che gli argomenti e le strategie esplicative che esse sviluppano siano non informativi e incapaci di enunciare leggi necessarie.  Nella prima parte viene delineata la concezione hegeliana dell’organico e mostrato come, secondo il filosofo, soltanto la dialettica sia in grado di esprimere adeguatamente il rapporto tra “interno” ed “esterno” che caratterizza l’organismo vivente, vale a dire l’immanenza del fine al processo della sua autorealizzazione. Nella seconda parte vengono messi in luce i presupposti generali di natura metodologica e ontologica che definiscono ciò che Hegel chiama “coscienza osservativa”, quindi si mostra come l’assunzione di questi presupposti sia alla base del fallimento del tentativo operato dalla filosofia della natura di ispirazione schellinghiana di esprimere per mezzo di leggi quantitative la connessione tra l’interno concettuale dell’organismo e la sua conformazione esterna.  Nella terza parte mi soffermerò brevemente sulla polemica hegeliana nei confronti della frenologia di Franz Joseph Gall e del suo tentativo di dedurre dalle caratteristiche misurabili del cranio le specifiche caratteristiche mentali del soggetto individuale. Si cercherà qui da un lato di mettere ulteriormente in rilievo i limiti concettuali che secondo Hegel sono propri della coscienza osservativa, dall’altro, di evidenziare gli elementi di attualità della posizione hegeliana. Risulterà, infatti, che Hegel nella sua critica della frenologia mette in luce alcuni fondamentali presupposti di quella pseudoscienza che sono in parte ancora accolti dalla filosofia della mente contemporanea.

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In the chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit focused on observing reason, Hegel provides an historically and systematically remarkable exposition of the conceptual structure of the living organism and the relationship between individuality and its physical body. Hegel does not expose his theory dogmatically, but rather he compares it with the science and Naturphilosophie of his time, both of which were characterized by the attempt to express the essential characteristics of the organic (living world) by means of quantitative correlations.

In this paper I will try to highlight the general elements of the critiques brought to these lines of thought and show why Hegel believes that the arguments and explanatory strategies they develop are non-informative and incapable of enunciating necessary laws.

In the first part I outline the Hegelian conception of the organic and I show how, according to the philosopher, only dialectic is able to adequately express the relationship between the "inner" and "outer" which characterize the living organism—namely the immanence of the end to the process of its self-realization.

The second part highlights the general methodological and ontological assumptions which define what Hegel calls, "observing consciousness." My aim is to illustrate how the statement of these presuppositions causes the failure of the Schelling-inspired Naturphilosophie to express the connection between the conceptual interior of the organism and its external conformation (Gestaltung) by means of quantitative laws.

In the third part I will briefly dwell on the Hegelian controversy against Franz Joseph Gall’s phrenology and his attempt to deduce the specific mental characteristics of the individual subject from the measurable characteristics of the skull.  On the one hand, I will try to elucidate the conceptual limits that according to Hegel are proper to the observing consciousness; on the other hand, I aim at demonstrating that the Hegelian position may be a further stimulus for the current philosophical debate: in his critique of phrenology, Hegel ultimately highlights some of its fundamental assumptions which are partly still accepted by the contemporary philosophy of mind.

This paper, which will be followed by a performative demo or microworkshop expands on a triple way on the conference topic: Firstly I will propose a critical history/genealogy of how the body became quantifiable since antiquity to Big data and Autonomous Algorithms, through my theory of the Algoricene or Age of Algorithms, and its current problematic expansion in a society of hypercontrol. Secondly I propose a philosophical redefinition of the body as fundamentally unquantifiable, via a new movement philosophy, and a new theory of perception grounded on proprioception (the body's sense of internal movement) and swarming, which opposes the legacy of fixed points of vision of the Renaissance, while claiming this irreducible nature of the body as both a creative force of evolution and a resistance to the reductive tendencies of all-encompassing measurement in contemporary hypercontrol society. Finally I will do an exposition of my own art-activism practices that enact such an irreducible body, in particular in relation to the EU project METABODY - www.metabody.eu. These practices can take form of a workshop, where the critical-genealogical and also philosophical-ontological aspects can be expanded, and also a performance (www.metatopia.eu).

After the talk I will close with 15 minutes performative demo of some of the techniques and systems I develop that mobilise the irreducible complexity of bodies, movement and perception, particularly https://metabody.eu/microsexes/ and https://metabody.eu/amorphogenesis/.

A bullet journal is a popular form of self-tracking (of health/ life habits). It can be defined as an organization method, like a mix between a planner and a journal. Companies and advertisements call it the analogue method for the digital age. Some authors claim the authorship of the method, but it truly emerged through internet communities of users sharing their planners and ideas.

A form of tracking: The whole bullet journal idea previews a well-organized formula, though ultimately it’s something widely open to each one’s tastes and goals – otherwise they would buy a simple planner. The basic form previews an index, a key for reading symbols (task, done, belated), a yearly view calendex, a monthly calendar, spread weekly or daily, with bullets as tasks or to-dos. For each week or month, bullet journalers create a habit tracking section on their notebooks. They track Water intake, sleeping habits, exercise, eating habits, medicine taken, health symptoms, menstrual tracker, pain trackers

A form of art: As open wide and spread this form of tracking is, it follows a few rules and tendencies that starts creating a specific kind of aesthetics, a health tracking aesthetics, of which we’ll see examples extracted from the content what the users share in their social network communities. Bullet Journaling is much more than a solo task between I and my notebook, is a constant share of the I, my identity, through my journal, following a networked pattern inside my own creativity and form of expression.

Remediation and surveillance: between the nostalgia of the analogic and the avoidance of tracking devices, apps and platforms, to whom the users gives personal data, we can say that this practice, by one side, avoids nowadays corporations’ surveillance though, on the other side, it grows ad spreads as an active community on Facebook groups and Instagram Accounts, creating a whole and sui generis aesthetics of health tracking and self-tracking, but also the tracking-the-other-trackers aesthetics. Later, a whole new wave of apps is trying to emulate the bullet journal method, with low success. This remediation of the journal and its strong presence on the social media platforms as an aesthetic statement can be seen as a form of art that is counter- surveillance in the means that it strips, tricks and plays with the whole methods of surveillance, inverting them, avoiding the digital tracking to expose it digitally, in a new form.

A quantificação dos corpos serve um propósito ambivalente. Por um lado, inclui os indivíduos numa nova norma biopolítica, tornando-os co-produtores dos novos arranjos da biomedicina; por outro, abre-os à exploração e ao desafio à norma natural mais profunda do jogo dos possíveis, tornando-os protagonistas na produção daquilo a que Donna Haraway (2003) chamou de naturecultures. Pelo registo, monitorização e fornecimento de grandes quantidades de dados biométricos, os indivíduos são gradualmente incluídos no processo de incorporação de um novo ethos, caracterizado pela inclusão num novo plano de cidadania em que as técnicas do self são sobrepostas pelas tecnologias da corporeidade. Esta apresentação tem por finalidade refletir sobre o percurso de transformação social e individual que tem na quantificação dos corpos o seu método fundamental para a extração da matéria-prima para construir um futuro imaginado em que os indivíduos são plenamente esclarecidos e informados e os sistemas são totalmente eficientes.

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The quantification of bodies serves an ambivalent purpose. On the one hand, it includes individuals in a new biopolitical norm, making them co-producers of the new biomedicine arrangements; on the other, it opens them to the exploration and to challenge the deepest natural norm of the jeu des possibles, making them protagonists in the production of what Donna Haraway (2003) called naturecultures. By recording, monitoring, and supplying large amounts of biometric data, individuals will gradually be included in the process of incorporating a new ethos, characterized by their inclusion in a new citizenship level in which the techniques of the self are overlapped by the technologies of corporeality. The purpose of this presentation is to reflect on the path of social and individual transformation that has in the quantification of bodies its fundamental extracting method of raw materials used to build an imagined future in which individuals are fully enlightened and informed and systems are fully efficient.

The prosthetic limb of today has achieved much ability, like the feeling of what is touched and the capacity of precise grasping, since the hook prostheses. We discuss how this replica of significant functions of the human hand implies the concept of embodiment. 

At the same time, a neuroprosthetic hand is able not only to recreate a complete body appearance but also to shape the perception. The most significant problems are twofold: the design-centred issue concerning the functional and aesthetic questions but also a definition of perception.  

Another essential element is the qualitative aspect that can be seen as an integral component of embodiment. This essay aims to investigate the problem of qualitative experience and relate it with the capability to have feelings through the prosthetic hand.

Therefore, this essay introduces and examines a new theoretical framework, the sensorimotor approach, a philosophical and psychological perspective developed in the 21st century by the philosopher, Alva Noë, and the psychologist, Kevin O’Regan. Can we adopt this perspective to describe the ability to recreate the sensation through the prosthetic hand? How does this analysis modify the definition of embodiment?

The issue of temperance as a capital virtue imbued the vast majority of moral literature of the Italian Renaissance. As long as its physiological counterpart and result – the humoral balance – was supposed to chair over human health, temperance punctually appeared in medical treatises and regimina sanitatis as well, as a constant golden rule of behavior to prevent and even heal disorders of body and mind.  

First published in Venice between 1558 and 1565, the discourses On the Sober Life by Luigi Cornaro (ca. 1484-1566) prescribed a code of practices based on diet and hygiene, to live healthy avoiding physicians’ treatments. Moderation in eating and drinking was recommended since the young age, but Cornaro focused in particular on how one could pursue healthy and worthwhile longevity further diminishing the daily quantity of food and beverage while getting older. 

Cornaro’s Discourses were an editorial success, and they were likewise quoted for a long time as an authority by European scholars who dealt with geriatrics, be they physicians or not – from Leonhard Lessius to Hufeland, until the advocates of “pro-longevity” in the 20th century. Of The Sober Life, they used to highlight the inverse proportion between the age and the amount of nourishment.  

Luigi Cornaro was no physician, rather a businessman fond of architecture and theatre, who was very active in the cultural milieu of Padua around the mid of the 16th century and had a close relationship with physicians and Aristotelians like Bernardino Tomitano and Sperone Speroni. In this respect, it is worth recalling the pivotal role that the Venetian print and the University of Padua played in the 16th century, at first to state Galenic medicine as the academic leading paradigm, and later to impose a version of it possibly in accordance with Aristotle and the Catholic doctrine. 

This paper aims to examine how Cornaro’s Discourses dealt with the categories of 'quantity of time' (old age) and 'quantity of matter' (scarce food) to investigate if, and in which terms, they reflected the Paduan debate of that time, and which idea of virtuous longevity they disseminated to their audience.

The connection between humoral theories and education dates back to Plato, whose Timaeus expressed clearly the influx of bodily fluids on mental faculties. Hippocratic and Galenic medicine deepened the analysis and, with works such as "Quod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur", structured a network of correspondences between the body and the realm of human wits and emotions. Centuries later, the humanist educational tradition drew on classical sources such as the pseudo-Plutarchean "De liberis educandis" (as the title goes in the 15th-century Latin translations) in order to assess the nature and educability of the child and youngster, repeating and articulating the Galenic commonplace of the young body as 'hot and humid' and therefore subject to violent passions and powerful imagination, to be disciplined accordingly. In this context, the relation between education and the body was fairly materialistic but still predominantly qualitative, and did not aim at a complete moral-vocational diagnosis of the pupil.

With the 16th century, while the increased presence of anatomy and dissection in academic medicine brought a new concept of a quantifiable body, a similar change in perspective affected the intersection between medicine and education, focusing on the talents and perspectives of the pupil and aiming at maximizing his chances of success. Some classics in the history of early modern medicine, such as Girolamo Mercuriale’s "De Arte Gymnastica" and most of all Juan Huarte’s "Examen de Ingenios", posited the physician/natural philosopher as Grandmaster of education, and advocated for humoral complexion and temperaments as the origin and determinants of talents and educability. 

In this paper, we aim to show on a selection of primary sources the shift of educational responsibility from the preceptor to the physician, deemed the only expert authorized to assess and measure talents, and prescribe the objectives and paths of physical and intellectual education. We will focus on how combinations of complexions and degrees of temperaments designed a new, quantified idea of human identity and limited the role both of education and personal choice, in the era in which the Reformation deeply questioned the idea of human free will and the possibility for the individual to choose his own destiny and place in society.

A separação entre sexo biológico e sexo social se apresenta como um problema das ciências desde a metade do século XIX quando das tentativas de assegurar uma explicação científica, bem como uma proposta de solução, para sujeitos nascidos intersexuais (LÖWY, 2003). A partir disso, a medicina produziu estratos quantificadores e instrumentos destinados a definir e, por vezes, redefinir a chamada identidade sexual humana. Ser intersexual é, para o saber médico, ser uma aporia no quadro binário do gênero. O termo foi usado, neste sentido, para enquadrar inúmeros casos que expõem ao limite a separação entre macho e fêmea, tal como ela fora pensada. Alguns casos são de origem cromossômica, como a síndrome de Turner (fêmeas X0) ou síndrome de Klinefelter (macho XXY), outros apresentam anomalias no desenvolvimento fetal e há também casos de origem hormonal, como a hiperplasia adrenal congênita ou a síndrome da insensibilidade aos andrógenos. Essa quantificação binária do sexo dos corpos em macho e fêmea, produziu, em consequência, o silenciamento de indivíduos que não se enquadram plenamente nesse sistema, isto é, o apagamento de intersexuais. Tais sujeitos, mesmo após diversas cirurgias corretivas e tratamentos hormonais constantes, têm dificuldades para compreender seus corpos como parte da sociedade em que vivem. Como se perceber sujeito de dignidade humana quando se é marcado pelo discurso da anomalia, do Outro? O presente ensaio percorre a narrativa da diferença sexual, introduzida pelo discurso médico, a fim de dar a voz a corpos colocados para além da natureza. A natureza humana usada pelo saber-poder médico ora como porta-voz, ora como álibi para a definição do normal e do patológico constitui, pois, nosso principal objeto de reflexão.

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The separation between biological sex and social sex is presented as a scientific problem since mid-19th century at the time of the attempts to ensure both a scientific explanation and a proposed solution to subjects that were born as intersex (LOWY, 2003). From that moment on, medicine has produced quantifying statements and instruments to define and sometimes to redefine the so-called human sexual identity. To be an intersex is, to the medical knowledge, to be an aporia in the binary gender framework. The term was used in this sense to frame countless cases that expose the limits of the separation between male and female as it had been thought. Some cases come from chromosome origin, as Turner syndrome (X0 females) or Klinefelter syndrome (XXY males), others present anomalies in fetal development and there are also cases of hormonal origins such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia or androgen insensitivity syndrome. This binary quantification of the sex of the bodies in male and female has produced therefore the silencing of individuals that cannot be completely fit in such a system, namely the deletion of intersex people. These subjects, even after several corrective surgeries and constant hormonal treatments have difficulties to understand their bodies as part of the society they live in. How can one perceive oneself as a subject of human dignity when one is marked by a discourse of anomaly, of Otherness? The current essay covers the sexual difference narrative introduced by medical discourse in order to give voice to bodies put beyond nature. The human nature used by medical power-knowledge sometimes as spokesperson, sometimes as an alibi to the definition of normal and pathological constitutes, therefore, our main object of reflection.

O século XXI foi saudado como a “Era da Informação” uma vez que se considerava que a proliferação das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) e a facilidade de acesso e produção da informação na sociedade passariam a ser instrumentos para a ampliação e melhoramento das interações sociais humanas. No entanto, ao se destacar as potencialidades inclusivas e comunicacionais das TIC, as suas possíveis implicações sobre hábitos incorporados estruturadores da identidade pessoal e da vida social nem sempre são consideradas. Neste trabalho será, inicialmente, ressaltado o papel estruturador das interações sociais imediatas na constituição da identidade pessoal. Em seguida, serão analisadas criticamente as várias formas quantificadas de interações sociais mediadas pelas TIC (quantidades de likes, seguidores, amigos, contatos, dentre outras). Procuraremos mostrar que tais interações quantificadas podem alterar significativamente hábitos estruturadores da identidade pessoal relacionados à confiança mútua e ao reconhecimento da efetiva co-dependência dos agentes sociais.

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The 21st century was hailed as the “Information Age” as it was considered that the proliferation of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the ease of access and production of information in society would become instruments for the expansion and improvement. of human social interactions. However, by highlighting the inclusive and communicative potentialities of ICT, its possible implications on embedded habits that structure personal identity and social life are not always considered. This paper will initially emphasize the structuring role of immediate social interactions in the constitution of personal identity. Then, the various quantified forms of ICT-mediated social interactions (amounts of likes, followers, friends, contacts, among others) will be critically analyzed. We will seek to show that such quantified interactions can significantly alter structuring habits of personal identity related to mutual trust and recognition of the effective codependency of social agents.

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar as possíveis consequências da tomada de decisão baseada em relações correlacionais e/ou causais extraídas de grandes quantidades de dados no contexto da engenharia genética. Com a tecnologia de big data, muitas correlações entre marcadores genéticos e expressões biológicas vêm sendo desveladas. O problema envolvido na descoberta de marcadores biológicos é que, com o avanço das ferramentas de edição genética como CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), decisões estão sendo tomadas em terreno ainda não totalmente explorado. Para ilustrar esta problemática, analisaremos a polêmica envolvida em torno do gene CCR5. Seguindo o pressuposto que pessoas homozigotas para a mutação do gene CCR5 são, em sua maioria, imunes ao vírus HIV, o cientista He Jiankui modificou a expressão do gene CCR5 em embriões utilizando a ferramenta de edição genética CRISPR. Este procedimento que resultou, até onde sabemos, no nascimento das duas primeiras crianças geneticamente modificadas, também gerou uma enorme discussão sobre as consequências éticas e científicas no domínio da engenharia genética. Mesmo que a mutação do gene CCR5 seja identificada como possível marcador de imunidade ao vírus HIV, sua expressão sem a presença de mutação pode estar relacionada à possível imunidade a outras doenças infecciosas, como a febre do Nilo e a influenza. Este caso traz à tona o problema da identificação de marcadores biológicos através da detecção de padrões correlacionais desvelados em grandes quantidade de dados nem sempre bem estruturados. Entendemos que a tecnologia de big data traz a possibilidade de explorarmos padrões correlacionais entre marcadores genéticos e suas funções biológicas. Entretanto, essa tecnologia, associada à engenharia genética, pode apressar o processo de decisão sem considerar consequências científicas e éticas. Nesse cenário, a investigação sobre causalidade e correlação se torna relevante, e, possivelmente, urgente. Em suma, sem a pretensão de solucionar tal dilema, é objetivo deste trabalho investigar as consequências da tomada de decisão baseadas em relações, sejam elas causais ou correlacionais, no que tange a pesquisa em engenharia genética que tem colaborado para a quantificação dos corpos.

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This work investigates the possible consequences of decision-making based on correlational and/or causal relationships involving huge amounts of data, in the context of genetic engineering. Big Data technology allows the discovery of many correlational patterns between genetic markers and the corresponding biological expressions. However, a problem in the unveiling of biological markers is associated with the advancement of genetic editing tools such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), with decisions being made based on unvalidated results. To illustrate this problem, we will analyze the controversy surrounding the CCR5 gene. Following the assumption that people homozygous for the CCR5 gene mutation are mostly immune to the HIV virus, the scientist He Jiankui used CRISPR to modify the expression of the CCR5 gene in embryos. This resulted, as far as we know, in the birth of the first two genetically modified children, leading to huge discussion about the ethical and scientific consequences in the field of genetic engineering. Even if the mutation of the CCR5 gene is identified as a possible marker for HIV immunity, its expression, without the presence of mutation, may be related to possible immunity to other infectious diseases, such as Nile fever and influenza. This case brings up the problem of identifying biological markers by detecting correlational patterns in large amounts of data that are not always well structured. We understand that Big Data technology allows the unveiling of correlational patterns between genetic markers and the corresponding biological functions. However, this technology, in association with genetic engineering, can accelerate decision-making processes, without considering the scientific and ethical consequences. In this situation, research concerning causality and correlation becomes relevant, and possibly urgent. In short, without the intention of solving such a dilemma, we investigate the consequences of decision-making based on causal and/or correlational relationships, in the context of genetic engineering research which has collaborated to the quantification of bodies.