Big Data Is The Steam Engine Of Our Time
We inhabit a world of blinding technological change. New devices, new programs and new infrastructure rise up, dominate discourse and pass away before we even have time to comprehend their intent. But for all the change we've experienced, the the most profound transformation of the digital era is really just getting started. Welcome to the era of Big Data.
For the sake of clarity, let's recall what Big Data means. At the intersection of the Internet, digital recording technologies and a profusion of small-scale wireless sensors comes an exponential increase in stored data. We're recording information of every kind: tweets, engine temperatures, Facebook photos, stock trades, grocery store purchases. These data points pile up, billions upon billions, trillions upon trillions, recording our lives and the life of the world we inhabit. They are very, very valuable to people with the ability to see patterns in, and extract insight from, the blizzard of information blowing out of the cloud.
Ultimately, the promise of Big Data is the ability to understand (and control) a seemingly chaotic world on levels never before imagined. The dangers of Big Data stem from that very same promise. It's impact on society will be akin to the transformative effect of past technological revolutions.
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