I think, therefore I am”, quipped Rene Descartes eons ago. Quite evidently, the great man walked the earth centuries prior to the advent of Big Data. For had he lived in the present time, it is possible that Descartes would have felt the need to replace ‘think’ with ‘data’.
The 21st century is likely to go down in the annals of history as the Statistical Century. One of the most profound developments of the past few decades is the rise of vast mountains of data. As the Industrial Age gave way to the Information Age, the Mega made way for Giga, which zipped through to Tera, on to the Peta; and humanity now stands at the cusp of jousting with the Exa age. This transformation, thanks in large part to vast advancements in computational prowess, is unique in its all-encompassing nature. While historically, transformations tended to manifest in select areas before driving humanity forward, the Big Data age is an omnipresent beast that could permanently alter our perception of reality.
In this engaging and delightfully simple read, big data experts Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier invite the reader on an errand through the fascinating world of information. For those frequently overwhelmed by information overload, this book will prove to be a guiding light in making sense of the clutter, and possible ways forward in this stage of humankind’s evolution.
Flagging off with a succinct history of humankind’s painstaking tryst with data collection, through Census studies and maritime navigation, Big Data highlights the evolution of the Information Age. The algorithmic revolution enabled humankind to harness data from the recording and retrieval stage, to the manipulation stage; and most significantly, to assume predictive capabilities. With increasing information chaos, the erstwhile emphasis on data accuracy and the extrapolative benefits of Statistical Sampling are proving to be limiting factors in addressing complexity. Growing demands on timeliness has led to a debate between exactitude and speed, with forces weighing towards the latter.
In areas as diverse as public health, warfare, and finance, the availability of vast data, and the means to manipulate them, has enabled technology to be utilised in novel ways for public benefit. As correlation overwhelms the need to discern causation, the ‘what’ will supersede the ‘why’, with results often flying in the face of established theoretical constructs. The algorithmisation of the world is well underway and data is likely to be a key cog in the enormous wheel of interlinked complexity.
Big Data also calls upon to question several uneasy aspects of the data revolution. The pursuit of the big picture – crowd behaviour – entails an emphasis on minute insights into the individual. The privacy question assumes centre stage in a hyper-connected world. Overreliance on information reveals a dogma that could sluice freewill and inhibit faculties of reasoning. Inadequate understanding of information increases the risk of incorrect inferences and application, where negative consequences could outweigh benefits. Finally, the data revolution could impel human faculties to adapt to a probabilistic world, compared to the search for determinism that has occupied humankind for centuries.
— hemant.sreeraman@gmail.com