This page describes the creator's design intent and values; it does not describe system behavior or provide instructions for use.

Why this exists

I didn't build FCE to monitor people. I built it to help people notice themselves — clearly, voluntarily, and without judgment.

"A measurement is only ethical when the person being measured remains the primary decision-maker."

What problem I'm responding to

Many systems that measure human performance are designed for institutions: to decide, to classify, to protect liability, or to enforce compliance. Even when well-intended, that structure can pull power away from the person whose body and mind are being measured.

At the same time, everyday life contains moments where a person genuinely needs to know: "Am I functioning like myself today?" Not as a legal status, not as a diagnosis — as a practical check-in before a demanding task.

FCE exists for that moment: to support awareness and responsibility without turning the person into a case file.

Awareness before judgment

There's a common experience most people recognize:

  • "I'm probably fine… but something feels off."
  • "I can push through, or I can pause."
  • "I don't want to guess. I want a clean signal."

FCE doesn't tell you what you are. It doesn't tell you why you feel the way you do. It offers a mirror: how you function today compared to your own baseline.

That's the difference between a tool that supports self-regulation and a tool that tries to control outcomes.

Why baseline-relative matters

People differ widely in reaction time, attention style, and motor precision. Absolute thresholds flatten that diversity. They also create false confidence ("I'm above the cutoff, therefore I'm safe") and false alarm ("I'm below the cutoff, therefore I'm unfit"), even when the person is simply different.

Baseline-relative measurement respects individuality by asking a simpler and more honest question:

"How are you performing today compared to your normal range?"

FCE is not built to prove you are "good" or "bad." It is built to reveal drift — and to invite better decisions.

Why I refuse surveillance

I deliberately chose not to build features that turn a self-check into a monitoring system. This is a design boundary — not a technical limitation.

I refuse:

  • Background tracking that runs without deliberate user action
  • Default cloud accounts, automatic uploads, or hidden telemetry
  • Third-party reporting as a built-in outcome
  • "Safe/unsafe" or "fit/unfit" verdicts generated by the system
  • Anything that is easily repurposed for enforcement

Measurement without participation becomes surveillance. Surveillance shifts power away from the person being measured. And once that power shifts, it tends to stay shifted — even if the original intent was wellbeing.

Refusal is protection. If FCE ever becomes a leash, it has failed its purpose.

What FCE is (and is not)

FCE is:

  • A voluntary functional self-check
  • Baseline-relative (you vs you)
  • Privacy-first and local by default
  • Designed to support human interpretation

FCE is not:

  • A medical diagnosis
  • A substance detection system
  • A legal fitness verdict
  • An enforcement mechanism
  • A replacement for professional care

FCE measures function. It does not claim to identify causes.

The awareness loop

FCE supports a simple loop that stays human-led:

  1. Baseline: Build your normal range under typical conditions
  2. Check: Compare today to your baseline
  3. Interpret: Combine the result with context (sleep, stress, illness, training load)
  4. Act: Adjust — rest, reduce load, postpone, or retest later

The system doesn't decide for you. It gives you a cleaner mirror than "gut feeling" alone — while still treating your judgment as primary.

Where this fits: rehab, burnout prevention, athlete recovery

Rehab & return-to-function

Recovery is often uneven. Motivation can be high while function is still unstable. FCE can help detect "today is not a stable day" without moralizing it.

Use: short checks before demanding tasks; repeatability matters more than one-off scores.


Burnout prevention & load management

Burnout rarely arrives suddenly — it accumulates. When execution begins to drift (slower response, noisier precision, reduced stability under split attention), FCE can surface that drift earlier, when small adjustments still work.

Use: periodic checks during demanding periods; treat results as prompts for pacing, not proof of failure.


Athlete readiness & recovery

Athletes already track readiness through sleep, HRV, and subjective fatigue. FCE complements those with something direct: functional execution signals. It can help decide whether today should be high-intensity, technical, or recovery-focused.

Use: quick checks pre-session; make your own action rules (reduce intensity, shift focus, or rest).

A note on future sensing

In the future, passive sensing (sleep signals, HRV, movement patterns) could offer early hints that "something is off." But passive sensing alone should never become a decision engine. It can only be an invitation.

If anything like that ever exists in the FCE ecosystem, it should remain: opt-in, local-first, and non-enforcing — and it should point back to a voluntary functional check, not replace it.

Awareness is the goal. Not classification.

Final principle

Technology shapes behavior. Every product quietly teaches people what matters. FCE is built to teach one thing:

"Notice yourself clearly — then decide with care."

If FCE ever stops supporting dignity, consent, and human judgment, it should not exist.