Blog 8

 Big data is better data

Big data doesn’t just let us see more, more of the same thing we were looking at.  More data allows us to see new.  It allows us to see well.  It allows us to see different. You have more data.  You can see something that you couldn't see when you only had smaller amounts of it. Big data is an extremely important tool by which society is going to advance.  In the past, we used to look at small data and think about what it would mean to try to understand the world, and now we have a lot more of it, more than we ever could before. Big data is important, and big data is new, and when you think about it, the only way this planet is going to deal with its global challenge to feed people, supply them with medical care, supply them with energy, electricity,  and to make sure they're not burnt to a crisp  because of global warming  is because of the effective use of data. This is how society stored and transmitted information.  Now, society hasn't advanced all that much.  We still store information on discs, but now we can store a lot more information, more than ever before.

It collects more data. It increases the accuracy of its prediction. We have to be the master of this technology, not its servant.  We are just at the outset of the big data era, and we are not very good at handling all the data that we can now collect.  It's not just a problem for the National Security Agency.  Businesses collect lots of data, and they misuse it too, and we need to get better at this, and this will take time.  It's a bit like the challenge that was faced by primitive man and fire.  This is a tool that unless we are careful, will burn us.  Big data is going to transform how we live, how we work and how we think.  It is going to help us manage our careers and lead lives of satisfaction.