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Substance and form: Difference between revisions
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An existential dilemma — indeed a {{tag|paradox}} — first adverted to in the libretto of [[Puttanesca Rigatoni]]’s now largely forgotten comic opera ''[[La Vittoria della Forma sulla Sostanza]]'' (often performed, if performed at all, in German, as ''[[Die Eroberung der Form durch Substanz]]'') the modern world is blighted by the comforting embrace of boxes | An existential dilemma — indeed a {{tag|paradox}} — first adverted to in the libretto of [[Puttanesca Rigatoni]]’s now largely forgotten comic opera ''[[La Vittoria della Forma sulla Sostanza]]'' (often performed, if performed at all, in German, as ''[[Die Eroberung der Form durch Substanz]]'') the modern world is blighted by the comforting embrace of tickable boxes, checkable checklists, and auditable trails, all of which give their comfort by the easy road: rather than evaluate the qualities of your organisation, tally up its countable dimensions, however superficial they are. | ||
There is a logic to this: the power of big data is their emergent properties: you can extract from a mass of data qualities you can’t see from individual instances. That one kettle goes on at 4:30 in the afternoon signifies nothing in particular; that fourteen million do tells you it’s half time in the football. | |||
This is a correlation, not a causation, and it won't flow the other way. Just because you put the kettle on at 4:30 in the afternoon, and so did a million football watchers, that doesn't mean you were watching the football. Probability is an is, not an ought. | |||
{{Seealso}} | {{Seealso}} | ||
*Closely related to the [[technology paradox]] | *Closely related to the [[technology paradox]] | ||