Not sure if you're aware of it but Pine64 has a FOSS smartwatch (let's be honest, it's a development toy) platform people can develop against that includes a heart rate sensor https://pine64.com/product/pinetime-smartwatch-sealed/
That said, I think if we can teach people to take care of their health themselves (Sleep right, eat right, fast, how to exercise for where you're at, supplementation etc) Wearable would become irrelevant outside of athletics and medicine. Anecdotally, I started wearing smart watches wayyyyy back around the time of the Fit bit flex, graduated to several higher end models until Google purchased them and I bought my first Garmin. I thought having the device would help make me health, that it would align me to my goals but the sad truth is that if you don't know what you're doing, you just have a really zazzy smartwatch that no one cares about. Now I've had time to work with trainiers, dieticians, and have concrete goals and I will admit that have the Garmin Ecosystem to help me tract my progress has been an absolute game changer for 1. monitoring my health generally, and 2 for helping me maximize/push myself at the gym.
For me, I'm stopping at technology that estimates, which at the end of the day is all Garmin's devices really do. And even then, there's no way there's a one-size-fits-all algorithm to tell you how healthy you really are. it can just make good approximations with the information it collects and that's good enough for me. but once you get into the realm of things that read my blood, or stuff like that I am squarely out.
Edit; regarding product life cycle and smart phone dependencies, High-end garmin devices have Wifi on board so you don't need a phone. But then we get into the realm of there being a bluetooth wifi beacon on you at all time.
The crux of all of this is how much are you willing to give up to have access to the data that could improve your health. Why aren't competent developers flocking to Pine64 smartwatch? There's no profit. The surveillance system is where the profit it. How much would you need to pay for a firewalled offline fitness tracker? I suspect it would be more than I can afford.
That brings us back to the basics. Sleeping right is increasingly difficult in the 5G world. Exercise and eating right is about all you have left at the moment in the developed world. I don't need to be in the matrix to be healthy. Quite the opposite. Let's see where we all are in a year. Best for 2025!
"Why aren't competent developers flocking to Pine64 smartwatch? There's no profit."
An underrated point! I'm a huge fan of what Pine64 are trying to do, but as you point out there's limited support going into building genuinely solid products. To me, this is a sign that there is something seriously misaligned in a much bigger way than most people recognize.
I don't think it's hopeless, open source (decentralized innovation) may not be as fast, but it makes up in overall experience in the long run.
I'm old enough to remember the openness of developers making "niche" software in the eighties and nineties. For whatever reason, those same people (the ones still around) are fine with living on their smartphones and using Google for everything. If people only realized the value of their data, they would at least be demanding a cut of that even if they don't care about privacy.
1. I would argue that there aren't many "competent developers" any more. In the 70s, 80s and to some degree the 90s. you HAD TO learn lower level workings. Nowadays The tech market is mostly young men who "made uh app" by literally following instructions someone else wrote, and slapping it in their portfolio. This leads to massive churn/ turn over as these people don't understand the basics and are not prepared to learn in their position.
2. yes Surveillance Capitalism is a thing, and that's why it's our responsibility to advocate and educate, but with Friends like EFF, who needs enemies? You might not be aware of an organization called FUTO (https://futo.org/) who advocates for right to repair, and more broadly for technology that's offline and local. (Immich, Futo keyboard for example). That in conjunction with Pine64, these organizations exist because there is demand, and as people learn about the issues they almost always skew towards wanting their privacy.
2a. I would also argue there is a problem with the conversation. Part of the Inversion of our Civil rights, we are first: Having a conversation like we are captured by the current paradigm when RIGHT NOW if we get off tech en masse that's REALLY gonna fuck things up for the powers that be. SECOND, we're having this conversation from the position of "Daddy Government give us rights" instead of either the conversation being "Daddy Government make these crooks play nice" which, by extension we shouldn't even be having THAT conversation, we should be naming, shaming, and abandoning every organization with this predator/sex offender mindset. Fuck it, let things be hard, cause if it's harder on us, it's harder on "Them" they need our data, we don't need their tech.
"How much would it cost" - Containers are cheap to run, and with commidity micro PCs costing 300 or less it's not hard to have a home server. I've recently rebuilt my homelab on high-end mobile chips from the last 5 years and they kick the shit out of my Dual Xeon 128GB beast. My networking and computer run in almost the same foot print as my previous compute. Let that sink in. and with USB Storage is easily expandable for lay people.
I completely agree with you that the matrix makes you unhealthy and that's why I've been unplugging. The less I live my life by the matrix the happier, healthier and determined to be a better person I am. I would, however, compassionately suggest that 5G isn't a confirmed problem outside of beam shaping and tracking. I sleep about 8.5 hours a night easy because I CHOOSE TO, because it's A PRIORITY. Sleep is the foundation of your health! That said, I would be very interested to know if you've tried RF Blocking Headgear and if so what your results are.
In my analysis of "stakeholder capitalism," the technocratic solution to all our current problems with government and shareholder capitalism, I found that the new way to make money in the future will be to build the digital devices and apps that "nudge" (or coerce) people in making the "right" choices (as determined by who knows what/who). With this system in our 4IR future, we won't need governments, prisons or schools anymore because everyone will be monitored at each tiny little decision point and kept on the right track. The companies who design the "best" apps for controlling the population will get payments for every "correct" choice we make in response to each "nudge." That sounds very sci-fi, but that's how those promoting stakeholder capitalism (that is, the WEF folks) actually describe it, minus the snark.
Thank you for this article. I cant wait to share it with some of my friends and family members who claim Im paranoid because I don’t willingly embrace all of their tech gadgets. I have little fascination with trackers or gauges collecting my personal interior or exterior information. You have just beautifully articulated why. I feel both sane and prudent after reading your commentary.
From what I remember reading (and a quick skim around) the book focuses more on the impacts from artificial lighting / screens and how that impacts your circadian rhythm.
The EMF question is far beyond my understanding. I've learned enough to understand why there are questions, but don't know enough physics/biology to have a strong grasp of it. My gut feeling it being localized and low-power reduces the potential damage significantly. I should find a good book on the topic to read this year...
Not sure if you're aware of it but Pine64 has a FOSS smartwatch (let's be honest, it's a development toy) platform people can develop against that includes a heart rate sensor https://pine64.com/product/pinetime-smartwatch-sealed/
That said, I think if we can teach people to take care of their health themselves (Sleep right, eat right, fast, how to exercise for where you're at, supplementation etc) Wearable would become irrelevant outside of athletics and medicine. Anecdotally, I started wearing smart watches wayyyyy back around the time of the Fit bit flex, graduated to several higher end models until Google purchased them and I bought my first Garmin. I thought having the device would help make me health, that it would align me to my goals but the sad truth is that if you don't know what you're doing, you just have a really zazzy smartwatch that no one cares about. Now I've had time to work with trainiers, dieticians, and have concrete goals and I will admit that have the Garmin Ecosystem to help me tract my progress has been an absolute game changer for 1. monitoring my health generally, and 2 for helping me maximize/push myself at the gym.
For me, I'm stopping at technology that estimates, which at the end of the day is all Garmin's devices really do. And even then, there's no way there's a one-size-fits-all algorithm to tell you how healthy you really are. it can just make good approximations with the information it collects and that's good enough for me. but once you get into the realm of things that read my blood, or stuff like that I am squarely out.
Edit; regarding product life cycle and smart phone dependencies, High-end garmin devices have Wifi on board so you don't need a phone. But then we get into the realm of there being a bluetooth wifi beacon on you at all time.
The crux of all of this is how much are you willing to give up to have access to the data that could improve your health. Why aren't competent developers flocking to Pine64 smartwatch? There's no profit. The surveillance system is where the profit it. How much would you need to pay for a firewalled offline fitness tracker? I suspect it would be more than I can afford.
That brings us back to the basics. Sleeping right is increasingly difficult in the 5G world. Exercise and eating right is about all you have left at the moment in the developed world. I don't need to be in the matrix to be healthy. Quite the opposite. Let's see where we all are in a year. Best for 2025!
"Why aren't competent developers flocking to Pine64 smartwatch? There's no profit."
An underrated point! I'm a huge fan of what Pine64 are trying to do, but as you point out there's limited support going into building genuinely solid products. To me, this is a sign that there is something seriously misaligned in a much bigger way than most people recognize.
I don't think it's hopeless, open source (decentralized innovation) may not be as fast, but it makes up in overall experience in the long run.
I'm old enough to remember the openness of developers making "niche" software in the eighties and nineties. For whatever reason, those same people (the ones still around) are fine with living on their smartphones and using Google for everything. If people only realized the value of their data, they would at least be demanding a cut of that even if they don't care about privacy.
1. I would argue that there aren't many "competent developers" any more. In the 70s, 80s and to some degree the 90s. you HAD TO learn lower level workings. Nowadays The tech market is mostly young men who "made uh app" by literally following instructions someone else wrote, and slapping it in their portfolio. This leads to massive churn/ turn over as these people don't understand the basics and are not prepared to learn in their position.
2. yes Surveillance Capitalism is a thing, and that's why it's our responsibility to advocate and educate, but with Friends like EFF, who needs enemies? You might not be aware of an organization called FUTO (https://futo.org/) who advocates for right to repair, and more broadly for technology that's offline and local. (Immich, Futo keyboard for example). That in conjunction with Pine64, these organizations exist because there is demand, and as people learn about the issues they almost always skew towards wanting their privacy.
2a. I would also argue there is a problem with the conversation. Part of the Inversion of our Civil rights, we are first: Having a conversation like we are captured by the current paradigm when RIGHT NOW if we get off tech en masse that's REALLY gonna fuck things up for the powers that be. SECOND, we're having this conversation from the position of "Daddy Government give us rights" instead of either the conversation being "Daddy Government make these crooks play nice" which, by extension we shouldn't even be having THAT conversation, we should be naming, shaming, and abandoning every organization with this predator/sex offender mindset. Fuck it, let things be hard, cause if it's harder on us, it's harder on "Them" they need our data, we don't need their tech.
"How much would it cost" - Containers are cheap to run, and with commidity micro PCs costing 300 or less it's not hard to have a home server. I've recently rebuilt my homelab on high-end mobile chips from the last 5 years and they kick the shit out of my Dual Xeon 128GB beast. My networking and computer run in almost the same foot print as my previous compute. Let that sink in. and with USB Storage is easily expandable for lay people.
I completely agree with you that the matrix makes you unhealthy and that's why I've been unplugging. The less I live my life by the matrix the happier, healthier and determined to be a better person I am. I would, however, compassionately suggest that 5G isn't a confirmed problem outside of beam shaping and tracking. I sleep about 8.5 hours a night easy because I CHOOSE TO, because it's A PRIORITY. Sleep is the foundation of your health! That said, I would be very interested to know if you've tried RF Blocking Headgear and if so what your results are.
otherwise to you and Gabriel might i suggest checking out this podcast and feeling free to share your thoughts with me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnF--Kq9DgQ
In my analysis of "stakeholder capitalism," the technocratic solution to all our current problems with government and shareholder capitalism, I found that the new way to make money in the future will be to build the digital devices and apps that "nudge" (or coerce) people in making the "right" choices (as determined by who knows what/who). With this system in our 4IR future, we won't need governments, prisons or schools anymore because everyone will be monitored at each tiny little decision point and kept on the right track. The companies who design the "best" apps for controlling the population will get payments for every "correct" choice we make in response to each "nudge." That sounds very sci-fi, but that's how those promoting stakeholder capitalism (that is, the WEF folks) actually describe it, minus the snark.
Thank you for this article. I cant wait to share it with some of my friends and family members who claim Im paranoid because I don’t willingly embrace all of their tech gadgets. I have little fascination with trackers or gauges collecting my personal interior or exterior information. You have just beautifully articulated why. I feel both sane and prudent after reading your commentary.
Very glad to hear that!
I wonder if it’s in the book, or what you personally think, of smart watches and wearables emitting EMFs that can actually be damaging to your health.
From what I remember reading (and a quick skim around) the book focuses more on the impacts from artificial lighting / screens and how that impacts your circadian rhythm.
The EMF question is far beyond my understanding. I've learned enough to understand why there are questions, but don't know enough physics/biology to have a strong grasp of it. My gut feeling it being localized and low-power reduces the potential damage significantly. I should find a good book on the topic to read this year...