Post on 28-May-2020
An open discussion on the Data Revolution
Antonio Vetrò Director of Research - Nexa Center for Internet & Society
Nexa Lunch Seminar nr 52 - 28 July 2017
1phisaz
Acknowledgements
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This seminar is based on the studies and professional experiences of the last 10 years of my academic carrier, enriched by discussions, comments, materials and reflections shared with many colleagues along the way: I am profoundly thankful to all of them.
In particular, I am especially grateful to*:
Daniel Méndez Fernández Enrico Terrone Juan Carlos De Martin Marco Torchiano Marco Viola Maurizio Morisio
*alphabetical order :-)
Feb. 25, 20103
Feb. 11, 2011 Sep. 4, 2008
4
Source: https://www.scribblrs.com/heres-happens-every-second-internet/
“The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015.”
6source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-democracy-survive-big-data-and-artificial-intelligence/#
Source: Morgan Stanley, The Internet of Things is now, 2014. http://bit.ly/2ga1EPb
100 Billion “things” collecting and
sending data over Internet within 202
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Oct., 20128
Big data adoption • 63% of firms now report having Big Data in production in 2015, up from just 5% in 2012
• 63% of firms reported that they expect to invest greater than $10 million in Big Data by 2017, up from 24% in 2012
• 54% of firms say they have appointed a Chief Data Officer, up from 12% in 2012
• 70% of firms report that Big Data is of critical importance to their firms, up from 21% in 2012
• At the top end of the investment scale, 27% of firms say they will invest greater than $50 million in Big Data by 2017, up from 5% of firms that invested this amount in 2015
Source: http://newvantage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Big-Data-Executive-Survey-2016-Findings-FINAL.pdf9
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“Better data and statistics will help governments track progress and make sure their decisions are
evidence-based; they can also strengthen accountability. This is not just about
governments. International agencies, CSOs and the private sector should be involved. A true data
revolution would draw on existing and new sources of data to fully integrate statistics into
decision making, promote open access to, and use of, data and ensure increased support for statistical systems. ” (HLP Report, P23)
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“Better data and statistics will help governments track progress and make sure their decisions are
evidence-based; they can also strengthen accountability. This is not just about
governments. International agencies, CSOs and the private sector should be involved. A true data
revolution would draw on existing and new sources of data to fully integrate statistics into
decision making, promote open access to, and use of, data and ensure increased support for statistical systems. ” (HLP Report, P23)
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“unprecedented opportunities for data-driven discovery and decision making in virtually every area of human endeavour”
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16512/nsf16512.htm14
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CONTEXT
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Prehistory History Hyperhistory
Luciano Floridi, The 4th Revolution
No records
~Bronze Age
4th millennium BC
(invention of
writing)
societies that rely on ICTs to record
and transmit data of all kind
societies and environments where ICTs and their data processing
capabilities are the necessary condition for the maintenance
and any further development of societal welfare,
personal well-being, and overall flourishing.
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Mar. 1, 1995
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Sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge
Source: Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy20
Development of Empiricism
Positivism
Empiricism the most reliable source of human knowledge is experience, especially perception by means of the physical senses
Only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation
of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics
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1- all knowledge regarding matters of fact is based on the “positive” data of
experience 2- beyond the realm of fact is that of pure logic and pure
mathematics.
22 image source: https://it.wikipedia.org
Isaac Newton
Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)
(1643-1727)
Context
“a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres”
source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond23
Cyber physical systems
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are based on networked embedded software systems, which connect computational entities in a collaborative manner with physical entities of the real world to achieve an overall purpose. Together with available content and services on the World Wide Web, they build networks of systems that integrate with the physical environment.
Source: http://www.bicc-net.de/aktivitaeten/aktivitaet/cyber-physical-systems/24
Infosphere
An environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities called inforgs
An inforg is an informationally embodied organism, entity made up of information, that exists in the infosphere.
Luciano Floridi, The 4th Revolution25
Cybernetical view"The Air Defense system is an organism.... What then are organisms? They are of three kinds: animate organisms, which comprise animals and groups of animals, including men; partly animate organisms which involve animals together with inanimate devices such as in the Air Defense System; and inanimate organisms such as vending machines. All these organisms possess in common: sensory components, communication facilities, data analyzing devices, centers of judgment, directors of action, and effectors, or executing agencies…"
Source: Progress report of the U.S. Air Defence Systems Engineering Committee, 1950 26
Project Cybersyn(1971-1973)
image source : Wikipedia 27
The Viable System Model(Chile,
1971-1973)
image source : Wikipedia 28
The bodynervous system
(Stafford Beer)
image source : Wikipedia 29
Analogy to a company system
(Stafford Beer)
image source : Wikipedia 30
image source : Wikipedia
Principal functions of the Viable System Model
(1975)
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De Finetti board (1962)
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Cybernetic heritage
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Source :Geisberger, E., & Broy, M. (Eds.). (2015). Living in a networked world: Integrated research agenda Cyber-Physical Systems (agendaCPS). Herbert Utz Verlag.
A scenario
34
35image source : Wikipedia
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“The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tool to crunch these number, offers a whole new way of understanding the world. Correlation supersedes causation, and science can advance even without coherent model, unified theories, or really any mechanistic explanation at all.”
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“In the 21st century, much of the vast volume of scientific data captured by new instruments on a 24/7 basis, along with information generated in the artificial world of computer models, is likely to reside forever in a live, substantially publicly accessible, curated state for the purpose of continued analysis. This analysis will result in the development of many new theories !”
extract from the Foreword
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Feb. 3, 2017
Some controversialcases
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42
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PredPol
http://www.predpol.com/44
image source: http://news.wabe.org/post/concerns-arise-over-new-predictive-policing-program45
46
more
Chinese social credit system
48
49source: https://www.socialcooling.com/
50source: https://www.socialcooling.com/
Mar. 21, 201151
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“the orgy of fact extraction in which everybody is currently engaged has, like most consumer economies, accumulated a vast debt. This is a debt of theory and some of us are
soon going to have an exciting time paying it back — with interest, I
hope”
Sydney Brenner, Nobel Prize for Medicine
Useful links and readings
• Readings on Big Data and application to Science:
• Viktor Mayer-Schnberger. 2013. Big Data: A Revolution that will Transform how We Live, Work and Think. Viktor Mayer-Schnberger and Kenneth Cukier. John Murray Publishers, , UK.
• The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery In The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery (2009) by Anthony J. G. Hey, Stewart Tansley, Kristin M. Tolle
• Perspective from Philosophy and Ethics:
• http://www.recode.net/2016/6/14/11923286/facebook-emotional-contagion-controversy-data-research-review-policy-ethics
• http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/9/7360441/facebook-screwing-with-user-emotions-was-2014s-most-shared-scientific
• Perspectives on Big Data, Ethics, and Society, THE COUNCIL FOR BIG DATA, ETHICS, AND SOCIETY, http://bdes.datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Perspectives-on-Big-Data.pdf
• An Introduction to Philosophy of Science, Kent W. Staley, Cambridge University Press
• Floridi L. and Taddeo M., What is data ethics ?, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, Volume 374, Issue 2083, December 2016
• Lepri, B., Staiano, J., Sangokoya, D., Letouzé, E., & Oliver, N. (2016). The Tyranny of Data? The Bright and Dark Sides of Data-Driven Decision-Making for Social Good. arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.00323.
• Brent Daniel Mittelstadt, Patrick Allo, Mariarosaria Taddeo, , Sandra Wachter, Luciano Floridi, The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate, Big Data & Society, Vol 3, Issue 2 , First published date: November-01-2016, DOI: 10.1177/2053951716679679
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• Perspective from Statistics:
• R. Foygel Barber and E. J. Candès. Controlling the false discovery rate via knockoffs.
• Sheldon M. Ross, Introduction to probability and statistic for engineers and scientists, ELSEVIER
• Ronald E. Walpole, Raymond H. Myers, Sharon L. Myers, Keying Ye, Probability & Statistics for Engineers & Scientists
• Bradley Efron, Large-Scale Inference , Empirical Bayes Methods for Estimation, Testing, and Prediction, ISBN: 9781107619678, Jan 2013
• Perspective from Physics
• Cecconi, F. and Cencini, M. and Falcioni, M. and Vulpiani, Predicting the future from the past: An old problem from a modern perspective, A., American Journal of Physics, 80, 1001-1008 (2012), DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4746070
• Francesco Sylos Labini, Big Data Complexity and Scientific Method
• Chris Anderson, The End of Theory
• L.F. Richardson, Weather Prediction by Numerical Process (Cambridge University Press, 1922)
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Useful links and readings
Data Revolution
Antonio Vetrò Director of Research - Nexa Center for Internet & Society
Nexa Lunch Seminar nr 52 - 28 July 2017
from the philosophical roots to the last technological frontiers
55phisaz