ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the ways in which Quantified Self practices can be considered as personal science. In doing so I build on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer with regard to the value of the personal and hermeneutic dimension to understanding aspects of health. To illustrate my arguments, I examine the example of the Danish self-tracker, Thomas Blomseth Christiansen, who is famous for curing himself of his severe allergies thanks to tracking his sneezes since 2011. By drawing on interviews I conducted with Thomas and weaving them into relevant philosophical debates, I provide a critical discussion on the way self-tracking can be seen, at once, as a way of reclaiming autonomy and control over one's health as well as a form of outsourcing decision-making to technology itself. This discussion leads me to differentiate between active and passive self-tracking, and between members of the Quantified Self who build their own tools and the general users who rely on the commercial tech solutions. Ultimately, I suggest that the Quantified Self community can act as a ‘guru’ for mainstream self-trackers by nurturing a critical and inclusive approach to self-tracking, which can enable users to be involved in the means of production and become experts rather than just users.
