Video: Larry Smarr Looks to Future of Supercomputer Heatlh Tracking

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Back in the 80’s and 90’s at NSCA, Larry Smarr sparked a revolution in supercomputing, aiding the rise of the Internet. Gary Robbins writes that for the past 12 years Smarr has been on a different quest — cataloging and analyzing his own health biometrics.

Ever the scientist, Smarr’s documentation of his diet, stool, and blood analysis lead to his publishing a 28-page document in 2011 that revealed lots of highly specific information about his health, and what he had been doing to improve it.

Is this regimen really working? I first met Smarr in 1997. We were shooting an SGI video on visualization called The Power to See and he was notably heavier at the time. In fact, I have to say that he doesn’t look like he’s aged at all since then.

Where will this lead? Smarr envisions a future where health decisions are made based on data over time, not just on resulting symptoms that something is wrong.

Think of your health being monitored by a “global brain,” or a network of supercomputers that constantly draw data about your well-being from biosensors located on — and in — your body. Your data would be compared to that of others. Not a few people. Entire populations. Software would be used to spot emerging problems.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBe1DetayIU

Read the Full Story. For more on this topic, check out this Larry Smarr talk from the Personalized Life Extension Conference 2010.