The human face of Big Data

Best-selling author A.J. Jacobs, pictured here, declares his love for self-tracking in "Quantifying Myself," a delightfully candid and humorous essay he wrote for The Human Face of Big Data. "What Billy Beane did to baseball, what day traders do to the NASDAQ, I want to do to my body," he writes. "And not just out of idle curiosity. Studies show that keeping track of your body's numbers makes you behave in healthier and more productive ways."

Read more from Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt's book:  Human Face of Big Data

Pulse of the planet by Esther Dyson

Data Driven by Jonathan Harris