Like
many of you, I suppose, I use the health stuff on my smartphone
on occasion. I don’t always believe exactly what it says, nor
have I dug deep into how it’s been set up, adjusted or even calibrated.
For me, as long as it’s somewhat consistent—tell me if I walked
more or less than yesterday—I’m usually getting what I need.
But
occasionally things happen that drive me a bit bonkers in trying
to figure out what’s going on. Occasionally things happen that
get me wondering about what I should expect. And yesterday, something
strange happened.
I
was working outside, in the yard and around the garage. I was
expecting a phone call or perhaps a text message. Nothing too
important. If I missed the actual call, that would be okay. Instead,
the important part was going to be returning the call within a
half-hour or so depending on the message. So, I brought my phone
out into the yard with me. Had it in the pocket of my jeans.
At
one point, I decided to scrap some of my options for chores and
mow the lawn instead. Got the ride on ready and headed out. That’s
when the strange occurred.
Not
too long after finishing up, I decided to take a walk. Was interested
in knowing how far I went, so I checked to see where I was for
the day before wandering down the road. According to the app,
during the time when I was riding on the lawn mower, I had walked
1,127 steps.
I
will pass that information along again.
The
app breaks the information down in several ways, including time
of day. I knew when I was on the lawn mower. During a stretch
when I was not walking, but just sitting back and driving around
the yard, the app said I walked 1,127 steps.
There
are reasons why I don’t trust technology. A huge chunk of those
can be attributed to items that have nothing to do with the actual
technology. Kind of the old garbage in mentality that says don’t
blame the math when an operator error is putting in bad data.
That’s fair. Very fair.
My
issues are that promises are being made. Some of those involve
predictive text and learned operations. These things are being
designed for us, then once we own them they are being fine-tuned
in operations by us.
You
take a lawn mower out of its packaging and use it, maybe adjust
the angle of the handle and height of the mowing deck, five months
later you still have a lawn mower. Take a smartphone out of a
box and use it for a few months, it is different in ways well
beyond adjusting a few default settings.
This
phone watched me walk around the parks in Disney World. Estimated
I put more than twelve miles behind me in EPCOT, and about nine
miles in the Magic Kingdom. How am I supposed to process and trust
the results for those days when—lawn mower concept figuratively
adjusted for time and place—apparently a ride on the monorail
or the parking lot tram might add a few hundred to the day?
I
said a short time ago, some of it is consistency. Disney has four
theme parks. Honestly, it would be great (and impressive) to know
exactly how many steps or miles I covered while circling the World
Showcase Lagoon. But what I really want is a way to look over
a few days worth of statistics and see how much more or less I
moved during each visit. A way of comparing if I’m doing more
or less.
In
general, I do feel confident I am getting some of that information
when I am looking at similar environments. But it sure seems like
if I took a car ride along residential roads to get to a walking
trail (meaning slower driving speeds and not too great a distance),
there’s a chance that some of that drive is going to get credited
to my walk.
Let’s
accept the idea that I’m approaching this whole tale as funny
and kind of unusual. (Because I am and it is.) I’m ok with the
tools I use to measure my progress, and the app is still a part
of that. In such a viewing, it’s just worthy of a chuckle or two.
But
there is a deeper reality. And it’s worthy of note.
We
often shrug at artificial intelligence, and don’t truly believe
the robot uprising is on the way. If we don’t call out the mistakes
when we see them though, there are places where it’s very fair
to assume other safeguards and settings are inaccurate as well.
I
rode 1,127 steps yesterday. (Honestly, I feel like I did more
than that.)