Track Thyself? The Value and Ethics of Self-knowledge Through Technology

Philosophy & Technology (2024) 37:13 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00704-4 RESEARCH ARTICLE Track Thyself? The Value and Ethics of Self‑knowledge Through Technology Muriel Leuenberger1 Received: 2 June 2023 / Accepted: 12 January 2024 / Published online: 27 January 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract Novel technological devices, applications, and algorithms can provide us with a vast amount of personal information about ourselves. Given that we have ethical and practical reasons to pursue self-knowledge, should we use technology to increase our self-knowledge? And which ethical issues arise from the pursuit of technologically sourced self-knowledge? In this paper, I explore these questions in relation to bioinformation technologies (health and activity trackers, DTC genetic testing, and DTC neurotechnologies) and algorithmic profiling used for recommender systems, targeted advertising, and technologically supported decision-making. First, I distinguish between impersonal, critical, and relational self-knowledge. Relational selfknowledge is a so far neglected dimension of self-knowledge which is introduced in this paper. Next, I investigate the contribution of these technologies to the three types of self-knowledge and uncover the connected ethical concerns. Technology can provide a lot of impersonal self-knowledge, but we should focus on the quality of the information which tends to be particularly insufficient for marginalized groups. In terms of critical self-knowledge, the nature of technologically sourced personal information typically impedes critical engagement. The value of relational self-knowledge speaks in favour of transparency of information technology, notably for algorithms that are involved in decision-making about individuals. Moreover, bioinformation technologies and digital profiling shape the concepts and norms that define us. We should ensure they not only serve commercial interests but our identity and self-knowledge interests. Keywords Self-knowledge · Bioinformation · Algorithmic profiling · Relational identity · Ethics of self-knowledge * Muriel Leuenberger 1 Center for Ethics, University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 117, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 13 Page 2 of 22 M. Leuenberger 1 Introduction Novel and emerging technologies promise us unique insights into who we are. Technological devices and applications measure, label, categorize, and diagnose us. In this paper, I explore the value and ethics of self-knowledge through technology. If we have practical and moral reasons to pursue self-knowledge, and those technologies promise us more of it – should we use them to increase our self-knowledge? To address this question, we need a better understanding of the kinds and quality of self-knowledge they provide. I distinguish between three different kinds of self-knowledge (impersonal, critical, and relational) that give us different types of insights into who we are, investigate how technology can contribute to them, and raise ethical issues with technologically sourced self-knowledge. I focus on technologies that provide bioinformation – specifically, health and activity trackers, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing, and DTC neurotechnologies – as well as algorithmic profiling used in recommender systems, for targeted advertising, and to support decision-making in areas such as the justice system, health care or the job market. Bioinformation technologies and algorithmic profiling have both been specifically designed to characterize us and are presumably the biggest sources of technologically sourced personal information. Moreover, they represent two different ways how self-knowledge can be conveyed to us. Bioinformation technologies usually aim at providing personal information about the user to the user themself (of course, companies often collect and use this data as well). The personal profiles generated by algorithms are typically used to alter our behavior and support decision-making about us. In most cases, they reach us and potentially contribute to our self-knowledge only indirectly, through advertisements, recommendations, and decisions about us. One of the central ethical concerns that arise for bioinformation technologies and algorithmic profiling are privacy issues. In this paper, privacy concerns are largely set aside, to argue that ethical challenges arise not only when personal information gets into the wrong hands but also when it gets into the hands of the individuals themselves. In philosophy, self-knowledge tends to be discussed in epistemology, not in ethics.1 The focus is on self-knowledge as knowledge of one’s mental states (e.g., knowing that you feel cold) and the question whether self-knowledge differs from our knowledge of the external world (Gertler, 2021). However, to investigate the value and ethics of self-knowledge through technology, a broader concept of selfknowledge is required. The morally and practically valuable self-knowledge is substantial knowledge (see Section 3.2) about who one is. This includes mental states as well as physical properties and, as I argue, how we are defined by others. While we can observe a relational turn in the literature on the self and identity which acknowledges that the self is at least partially defined by and through others (Baylis, 1 Some philosophers have argued for a connection between epistemological and ethical considerations regarding self-knowledge (Frankfurt 1971; Taylor 1989) (I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for raising this point). This connection has, however, rarely been used to uncover issues in applied ethics. 13 Track Thyself? The Value and Ethics of Self‑knowledge Through… Page 3 of 22 13 2012; Lindemann, 2001; C. Mackenzie & Stoljar, 2000; Wallace, 2019), there is no corresponding debate on relational dimensions of self-knowledge. This paper argues for relational self-knowledge as a distinct kind of self-knowledge and explores the implications of technologically sourced self-knowledge for relational self-knowledge. Thereby, it helps to broaden our understanding of the scope of self-knowledge technology can provide. Relational self-knowledge is an important source for knowing oneself to which bioinformation technology and algorithmic profiling can contribute, given the right circumstances. The literature concerned with self-knowledge through technology primarily explores self-tracking technology and largely considers as self-evident that technology can contribute to self-knowledge and mediate self-reflection (Dietrich & Van Laerhoven, 2016; Lanzing, 2016; Lupton, 2016). The promise of self-knowledge is often a motivating factor for buying and using this technology – the slogan of the Quantified Self Movement is self-knowledge through numbers – and a major element in the advertisement of self-tracking technologies.2 But what kind of selfknowledge those technologies provide and whether they contribute valuable and (...truncated)