For the non-set-theorists, I’m using braces to express set membership:
pets = {cats, dogs, . . . }.
A week ago self-experimentation and the Internet struck me as wildly different. Self-experimentation is a tiny method of inquiry. The Internet is a gigantic physical network. Self-experimentation: one person alone. The Internet: everyone together.
But then I read this fresh essay by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, managing editor of the on-line journal First Monday. Thanks to Ghosh, I now see two similarities between self-experimentation and the Internet:
1. Both are growth media. They encourage things to grow. Self-experimentation helps develop new ideas about health. The Shangri-La Diet is an example; so are my ideas about mood. The most influential example is diabetes self-monitoring, which grew from self-experimentation by Richard Bernstein. The Internet, of course, has helped many things grow, especially new businesses (Ebay, Google), new forms of interpersonal communication (blogs, forums, chat rooms, MySpace), and new forms of collaborative work (Wikipedia, open-source software).
2. They encourage the growth of similar things. Self-experimentation doesn’t equally encourage all ideas about health; it especially encourages very low-cost ones. My self-experimentation led me to realize the benefits of skipping breakfast (improves sleep), seeing faces in the morning (improves mood), and standing a lot (improves sleep). The Shangri-La Diet costs almost nothing — less than nothing if you count the money saved on food. Ghosh points out that the Internet has especially encouraged the rise of businesses where the basic transaction does not involve money. Stuff is “given away” (that is, no money changes hands); payment is in terms of reputation. Both self-experimentation and the Internet are focusing intellectual attention on how people lived and thrived many thousands of years ago.