How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational Person

Data now profoundly shapes how we live, but this was not always the case. How did information become so central to our identities? How did we come to share our lives through social media profiles while simultaneously being tracked in government records and commercial databases? In How We Became Our Data, Colin Koopman traces the origins of data-tracking technologies and their impact on how we understand ourselves today. He examines the development of large-scale record-keeping systems such as birth certificates and social security numbers, alongside new methods for categorizing personality, measuring intelligence, and classifying people by race. Koopman argues these developments led to what he terms the "informational person" and the "informational power" that now governs us. The current surge of digital technologies that reduce us to algorithmic data points has deeper historical roots than commonly recognized. Drawing on philosophy, history, political theory, and media theory—engaging with thinkers including Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, and Friedrich Kittler—Koopman offers perspective on how personhood has been constructed and considers possibilities for resisting its diminishment.