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{{a|systems|}}{{C|newsletter draft}}{{quote|I distrust all systematisers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity. | {{a|systems|}}{{C|newsletter draft}}{{quote|I distrust all systematisers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity. | ||
:—{{author|Friedrich Nietzsche}}, {{br|Twilight of the Idols}}}} | :—{{author|Friedrich Nietzsche}}, {{br|Twilight of the Idols}}}} | ||
{{D|Data modernism|/ˈdeɪtə ˈmɒdənɪzm/|n|}} | |||
The belief that sufficiently powerful machines running sufficiently sophisticated [[algorithm]]s over sufficiently massive quantities of unstructured [[data]] can, by themselves, solve the future. | The belief that sufficiently powerful machines running sufficiently sophisticated [[algorithm]]s over sufficiently massive quantities of unstructured [[data]] can, by themselves, solve the future. | ||
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Nutshell: there is a belief which stretches from paid-up Randian anarcho-capitalists to certified latter-day socialists, that ''we can solve our problems with data''. | Nutshell: there is a belief which stretches from paid-up Randian anarcho-capitalists to certified latter-day socialists, that ''we can solve our problems with data''. | ||
===Data ''modernism''? Or ''post''-modernism?=== | Your attitude towards data influences how you organise your world: | ||
[[Determinist]]s build ''from'' history and ''for'' efficiency: without ''tolerance'' as there is no doubt. | |||
[[Pluralist]]s build ''towards'' the future and ''for'' flexibility: with tolderance, because we don’t know what will happen next, or how we will view what happened in the past, so we need room to adjust. | |||
===Data ''modernism''? Or ''post''-modernism? === | |||
An initial objection to the label: in [[James C. Scott]]’s classic account of [[high-modernism]]<ref>{{Br|Seeing Like A State}}</ref> there is a top-down, beneficent, controlling human mind of some kind with a pre-existing theory of the game. That central intelligence has derived a theory from deterministic first principles; a sort of [[cogito ergo sum]] begets [[income tax and rice pudding]] begets a mechanised [[High modernist|modernist]] way of life. The housing project, or five-year plan, or Ministry of Truth is an implementation of that pre-existing theory. | An initial objection to the label: in [[James C. Scott]]’s classic account of [[high-modernism]]<ref>{{Br|Seeing Like A State}}</ref> there is a top-down, beneficent, controlling human mind of some kind with a pre-existing theory of the game. That central intelligence has derived a theory from deterministic first principles; a sort of [[cogito ergo sum]] begets [[income tax and rice pudding]] begets a mechanised [[High modernist|modernist]] way of life. The housing project, or five-year plan, or Ministry of Truth is an implementation of that pre-existing theory. | ||
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But this is a difference of emphasis not upshot. It is a different path to the same place. Data science is just a new conveyance to the same reductionist theory of the world. | But this is a difference of emphasis not upshot. It is a different path to the same place. Data science is just a new conveyance to the same reductionist theory of the world. | ||
=== Unstructured data as [[hubbub]] === | ===Unstructured data as [[hubbub]] === | ||
Now data, as it comes, is an incoherent, imperfect, meaningless thing. It is the pre-cinema audience chat before the lights go down; a “[[hubbub]]” made up of millions of individual interactions, each of which ''may'' have its own meaning '''—''' or may be incoherent, or wrong-headed, or irrelevant '''—''' but in any case when aggregated and taken as an unmoderated whole has no particular meaning at all, beyond “people are talking”? | Now data, as it comes, is an incoherent, imperfect, meaningless thing. It is the pre-cinema audience chat before the lights go down; a “[[hubbub]]” made up of millions of individual interactions, each of which ''may'' have its own meaning '''—''' or may be incoherent, or wrong-headed, or irrelevant '''—''' but in any case when aggregated and taken as an unmoderated whole has no particular meaning at all, beyond “people are talking”? | ||
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We say “we have unconscious biases and they inform our reactions”. Well, no ''shit''. | We say “we have unconscious biases and they inform our reactions”. Well, no ''shit''. | ||
===[[Averages | ===[[Averages]]=== | ||
So we tend to “extrapolate” central figures from random noise: economic growth. The intention behind expressed electoral preference. Average wages. The wage gap. Why the stock market went up. ''That'' the stock market went up: these are spectral figures. They are ghosts, gods, monsters and devils. They are no more real than religions, just because they are the product of “science” and “techne”. | So we tend to “extrapolate” central figures from random noise: economic growth. The intention behind expressed electoral preference. Average wages. The wage gap. Why the stock market went up. ''That'' the stock market went up: these are spectral figures. They are ghosts, gods, monsters and devils. They are no more real than religions, just because they are the product of “science” and “techne”. | ||
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{{Ref}} | {{Ref}} | ||
{{c|Futurism}} | {{c|Futurism}} | ||
<references /> | |||