Small world, big data

Did holistic thinking move from the right to the left part of the brain?

You’ve probably heard someone responding to a technology related coincidence that “they are listening” or that “the algorithm knows”. With a sense of irony and suspicion, they continued by claiming that “the robots are here” or that “the government wants us all lined up like in that movie, Matrix.”

Within the last decade, technology became omnipresent. It invaded our lives not just by having us carry a 2.39 GHz data collector in our pockets, but also by giving life to our houses with the IoT technology (Internet of Things). Today, data is pouring in from everywhere — apps and websites, desktops and mobiles, even watches. Flawless facial recognition systems in airports are used to verify the identities of travelers. Smart devices, connected cars — the sources of data are endless.

Alternative text or alt text are words used within an HTML code as tags to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page. While it can be beneficial for the blind and vision-loss community, can be used as a political tool in the social media. For instance: Image may contain: blonde man in black suit and red tie might trigger the algorithm to pile up your feed with Trump related posts you didn’t ask for.

With the focus on the user’s experience, the internet developed in becoming seamless. With the Big Data becoming huge, the presence of fallacy decreased, not just in the digital, so it’s justified that we are a bit suspicious.

Twenty years ago, we would stand surprised in the face of coincidence. Vacation-related coincidences tend to involve unexpectedly running into someone you know. Since you probably know a great many people and you are part of a specific socio-economic group that is likely to take vacations in the same places, the probability of running into someone you know is also fairly high. But even in those situations we would claim that it’s a small world.

Small world, as an expression, used to coin the term coincidence or even a fatalist occurrence. What started out as a faith signal, feels nowadays like a glitch in the matrix. What used to fill our days with a sense of belonging and remind us that we are on the right path feels like a mathematical result of a complex algorithm that works with no interruption.

Nowadays, small world coins the term algorithm. The end of mysterious coincidence.

Welcome to the new paradigm. Embrace the dissolution of the divine meaning of sign — in terms of superstition, interpretation, randomness, faith, prophecies — and make way for the Internet Filter Bubble. Based on data utterly sorted for the purpose of bringing together people who share the same tendencies, it manages surprises or coincidences.

So is my biological clock shaped by the input of my notifications? Are my musical tendencies just another algorithm result from the big cloud of suggestion? Is Facebook shaping my entire life?

Perhaps we’ll find out in 2020.