“To the extent that mindfulness apps embrace the Buddha’s aims—to end suffering by reducing attachment to the ego—they’re part of a wider apparatus of the quantified no-self. The ethical experience they sell is not only a reworking of the self’s relation to the self; it’s a reworking of technology’s relation to technology. They’re digital devices that aim to release us from the suffering caused by excessive dependence on digital devices. In line with fundamental tendencies shared by consumerism, self-help, and long-established religions, they offer the promise of liberation at the price of a new attachment.”John Tresch
A thorough and challenging review about the ‘brain hacking’ approach to meditation, through the use of mobile apps. Apps that ‘offer liberation for the price of a new attachment’ in the author’s view and we agree. Read the article, check some of the apps it mentions out, take a walk and reflect on the role of a quantified self in finding stillness in our day. Can they be a support? Should people be profiting from our inability to relinquish habits? If not apps then what?
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