ERA OF BIG DATA
Digital technology has no answer to human fakery
The echo chamber of social media makes detecting the veracity in what people say increasingly difficult, writes Jonathan Yudelowitz
Brexit and the shocking Donald Trump victory occurred in an era of "Big Data" and data-science-enabled machines that can learn and think. The technologically enabled opinion polls were wrong, which suggests there is something immeasurable, and therefore beyond analysis, in the way people operate and decide. The popularism reflected by these surprising outcomes show clearly how the financial services and political elites have not used information and communication technology (ICT) to see beyond their own interests and world view — nor to gain insight into, or influence on, what people different to themselves are feeling, needing or thinking. Even so, the echo chamber of social media makes detecting the veracity in what people say — or distinguishing the work of computers or bots from those of people — increasingly difficult. ICT is inimical to the learning, real thinking and debate according to which effective strategy is formulated, executed and reviewed. The Financial Times reporte...
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