This chapter written by Alec Ross provided a fascinating overview of the power, potential and danger of big data and its subtle but inescapable presence in modern life. The article provides many stunning facts that are likely already out of date (since it was written in 2016) but they provide a vivid trajectory of our present and future. I had already been a bit of a skeptic on the growing capabilities of government and corporate surveillance and data collection and in many ways this article reinforced my concerns.
However, it also enlightened me to many of the benefits of big data, with the many examples of agricultural, financial and peace making field it has and will continue to improve. I felt that Ross maintained a balanced approach to evaluating big data, not cowering in fear but also not wholeheartedly embracing it either. His assessment that big data is ultimately a tool and amoral is one that I mostly agree with, as he puts it “these technologies are value neutral until a human directs them”. My previous concerns with these groundbreaking technologies was the same as any other technological tool- how humanity chooses to use them.
But in this regard I am somewhat hopeful that just as humanity has had a mixed track record in using technology for good (by the grace of God) and evil, then we will also use big data to mixed results. Beyond this concern though, Ross reveals another more subtle and sinister danger in the growing prominence of these technologies, not the danger of humanity misusing it but the danger that these technologies will begin to use us. His section on algorithms particularly highlights this danger, showing how counter intuitive to how things appear, big data is actually taking away our ability to choose rather than expanding it. He uses the example of how the traditional picking an outfit could soon be subverted by an algorithm that simply tells the statistically best outfit to choose for the occasion. The growing power of machines is also transforming us into machines. “We may live more efficient lives as instincts are replaced by algorithms, but it is reasonable to fear that some of our most human qualities- love, spontaneity, autonomy- may be changed for the worse by our living more algorithmic lives”. As scary as this thought is, I am encouraged by the closing thoughts of Ross pointing out the human qualities machines can never possess. I only hope humanity doesn’t forsake these qualities in the name of pragmatism.
Epic Explorations in Emerging Media 