Rick Smolan: Using Psychic Apps to Improve Your Health | Big Think

Rick Smolan: Using Psychic Apps to Improve Your Health
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Our phones are starting to know us better than we know ourselves. They’re starting to see patterns that we don’t detect on a day-by-day basis, but the phone sees this overall pattern and then it looks for changes in that pattern.
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Rick Smolan:

Rick Smolan is a photographer who used to work for National Geographic and Time and the creator of the Day in the Life series.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Rick Smolan: Data exhaust is probably my least favorite phrase in the big data world 'cause it sounds like something you're trying to get rid of or something noxious that comes out of the back of your car. But basically everything we're doing now is being recorded and it never is going to go away.

If you ever plan to run for office, if you’re a teenager, remember everything you do, every tweet, every Facebook posting, every picture you put on Instagram will be there forever for journalists and politic - for your competition to dig up. The whole idea of data exhaust is that between our smartphones and our credit cards and our easy passes and all the other things that are collecting information about us, there's this three-dimensional portrait of each of us and who we are. And that is being analyzed and sold to the highest bidder and is being used to understand peoples movements, behavioral patterns.

I'll give you an interesting example of that. There’s a company in Boston called Ginger IO that has a smartphone app that can predict two days before you get depressed, that you’re going to get depressed. I was very dubious when I first heard about this and I actually spoke to the gentleman who runs it, Anmol. And he said – I said, "First of all, how would a smartphone know I’m going to get depressed before I do? And why would somebody even want to know that?" He said, "Well, actually, first of all, you have a regular pattern of behavior. Basically each of us has a radius of travel, most of us go to work at the same place, we eat at similar restaurants, we have similar patterns of picking up our kids at school. So the first week the smartphone app just basically says this is the radius of travel for Rick.

On a day, two days before I start getting depressed my radius of travel starts shrinking, the amount time I spend at home goes up, the amount of e-mails and tweets that I send goes down. There’s this regular pattern of almost like withdraw. The reason that this is actually useful, from a health perspective, this is what Ginger IO is actually been focusing on, is people with diabetes have a very high correlation with depression. When you get depressed, people stop taking their medicine; a higher percentage of people than normal stop taking their medicine.

If you have diabetes, the consequences of not taking your medicine are quite severe. Organ failure, blindness; it’s quite dramatic. Insurance companies want to make sure that you stay on your medicine. So basically you sign up for this program if you're diabetic and it basically says if it looks like I'm going into one of these depressive episodes a few days from now, let my doctor know, let my kids know, let my spouse know, my friend, just to check it with me to make sure that somebody comes and notices that. So it’s interesting this idea of this - that our phones are starting to know us better than we know ourselves. They're starting to see patterns that we don’t detect on a day-by-day basis, but the phone sees this overall pattern and then it looks for changes in that pattern.

[Neli]

I agree... that is what happening in my life right now. But I am at this point that I feel like I like this kind of lifestyle. I like my life going slow, not having much friends... less drama, less problems.

[TeganBurns]

I think that's accurate to an extent... there is usually some kind of "trigger" that makes us depressed, not necessarily a pattern. Unless that trigger for depression is repercussive.

[deebee]

Information information information! Welcome to the Information Age!!

[dueledge]

It's working out what pattern you should be matching that's the hard part.

[JamesKingunderstandinglife]

I thought you had to be full of it when I saw psychic and health, I was very surprised how you explained it and it made me realize my psychic prejudice can be wrong at least once in a while and I will try to be more open in dealing with all of my prejudices. Your psychic explanation is not exactly supernatural psychic prejudice that I have, but it was close enough to close my mind for a while. Good video.

[HippopotamusPencil]

Technology that gives us a more knowledge of ourselves? Yes please!

[adamwest]

this is interesting and thought provoking, but it sends a shiver down my spine.

[celticth]

Major Depressive Disorder[the most common mental illness and usually what people are referring to when they just say depression] is a chronic, potentially life-long illness that comes and goes; just as someone would have physical diseases that come and go in severity.

[smoothbanana]

It can however give the illusion of being psychic. When we're emotional, it can be difficult to be objective and honest to ourselves. I see a lot merit in this approach to improving healthcare.

[nathenmorris]

thats cool when it is used in a good way which there is a huge openess for technological abuse as such i still think it is necessary at this time to be self healing

[Beer_Dad]

They already knew you would feel that way.

[TubaBuddha]

I am 51, so I am way past thinking of running for office. Also, I have never had a cell or smart phone, as I understand what it does to your brain. Don't Tweet. But I do Facebook and am a big daily user of YouTube. I seldom IM or send personal e-mails. I keep in touch by phone or Facebook. I am diabetic type 2 and nearly always take my oral medication, except when I forget, which is rare. I am also depressed. Moved back to my small hometown and have nearly no friends here, and just a few family.

[xthe_moonx]

knowing what could happen, changes what could happen.

[Mkay]

'Your radius of travel decreases, you spend more time at home, you send less tweets', well according to this I am perpetually depressed...

[MrVexedspirit]

agree, you can create psychic apps that can predict pattern of behaviour of semi functional humans

[Gorrgrim]

hmm so am i depressed if i dont like to travel, stay at home all the time, and dont have a facebook or twitter?

[itsjustameme]

This algorithm doesn't tell me when I'm about to get depressed - it tells me that I have had the flu for two days and counting.

[tiagotiagot]

Forget your image, the world is becoming a very scary place for people that want to be able to disagree with the government.

[dominikrohdepiur]

I wonder why there is no free 90 try period and state financed health insurance coverage which ultimately payes of multifold for every party involved ( win/win/win)

[Neli]

Anyone seen the new trailer... about this guy falling in love with this robotic persona from his telephone app...???