| We have always had this tension of understanding the world, at small spatial scales or individual scales, and large macro scales. In the past when we looked at macro scales, at least when it comes to many social phenomena, we aggregated everything. Our idea of macro is, by an accident of history, a synonym of aggregate, a mass in which everything is added up and in which individuality is lost. What data at high spatial resolution, temporal resolution and typological resolution is allowing us to do, is to see the big picture without losing the individuality inside it. I believe that in the future, macro is going to be something that is going to be in high-definition. You're going to be able to zoom in into these macro pictures and see that neighborhood, and see that person, and understand that individual, and to have more personalized interactions thanks to the data that is becoming available. I think that in some sense, big data can help recover the humanity of a world in which the scientific representations of people have become dehumanized, because of our need to simplify. |
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| César Hidalgo |
César talks about his work here. The Observatory of Economic Complexity is here. His TED talk from 2010 is also very interesting. Watch his TED talk after the jump. It's all about lego and putty.
Another tension perhaps between the need for economic data and the need for personal privacy. Can you do these macro HD analyses without knowing "everything" about each of us, to the extent that we cannot be anonymous?
ReplyDeleteDo I want someone, anyone, to have this much data about me? Do I trust them to protect my data, when it seems inevitable that someone will want to use the data to exploit me?
A couple of points.
DeleteFirst, most macro analysis seems to be done at the same summary data levels which would have been possible when Keynes was alive. That is one of the reasons it is so bad. People like Cesar Hidalgo are doing much more sophisticated analysis without getting anywhere near the individual level. I guess they could push this further but I can't see why they would be interested in your personal data.
Second, I would rather that my personal data was available for a socially useful purpose than for, say, credit card companies and internet companies to bombard me with crap advertising.