

The problem with our data obsession - zw123456
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/511176/the-problem-with-our-data-obsession/

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shalmanese
"Campaign donation databases, for example, could be designed so that records
cannot be sucked out of them en masse."

No, they really can't. What Morozov is asking for, in essence, is effective
DRM.

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zdw
The problem seems to be coming to conclusions that the data doesn't back up,
or having emotional reactions to that data that aren't helpful.

The solution proposed here is "Don't have data". Because if we stick our heads
in a hole, it'll all get better?

This is obviously nonsense.

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Arguggi
"The solution proposed here is "Don't have data". Because if we stick our
heads in a hole, it'll all get better?"

I don't think this is the solution Morozov is proposing. He's just saying that
collecting and distributing more data will not necessarily be beneficial
because data interpretation is subjective and data collection may be biased.

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danso
So who governs what is the correct application and interpretation of data?

I hate to be overly dramatic about this, but didn't the Church worry about the
Truth being perverted after Gutenberg? Didn't penny newspapers cause problems
for the Founding Fathers?

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Arguggi
"So who governs what is the correct application and interpretation of data?"

Morozov doesn't worry about the correct application of data but, from what I
understood reading the link, is more worried about this:

"Morozov fears a future in which such “intuitive knowledge” about how to
deploy resources is overruled by algorithms that can work only with hard data
and can’t, of course, account for the data they don’t have."

It could be argued that decisions based on "intuitive knowledge" without any
data are as biased as the one's based on only data.

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DannyBee
As per your last point, his argument essentially turns into "i want to base
decisions on gut feelings and assertions".

He tries to weasel word differentiate between "intuitive knowledge" (really:
human based algorithms) and "algorithms", when they are all really just
algorithms.

He doesn't explain at all why his algorithms are better than any a computer
could use, or for that matter, why a computer couldn't implement the same
algorithms that back his "intuitive knowledge".

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Apocryphon
Reminds me of the central reason for the InGen Incident on Isla Nublar.

