Dataism
Enter the World of Data EP.1
Unleashing the acceleration for progress
This article is an effort to spread mindfulness amongst all age groups about the current scientific events and giving an insight into the future.
The words Dataism and Dataist were used in the book Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, who always inspires me with his work and perspicacity.
One might ask, why the emphasis on DATA and why the sudden spike? What is unique about Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Data Analysts, Business Intelligence Analysts, and other data-driven specialists (let us call them Dataists)?
Well, to answer these questions, one must know the timeline and history of DATA.
Long long long ago, Homo Sapiens evolved in East Africa, then started the great Cognitive Revolution, and after 58,000 years, the Agricultural Revolution happened.
It significantly changed the lifestyle of the Sapiens, made them settle. Furthermore, after 11,500 years from then and just 500 years back, the Scientific Revolution took place, and this time, it changed EVERY aspect of life on planet earth beyond comprehension. And that was possible only by the acquisition of KNOWLEDGE.
It did not take much time since then for other revolutions to follow; at a higher speed, our species evolved and evolved, today we are transforming into superhumans. Not yet there, but it is around the corner. If my words do not convince you, read the article below, and come back:
We have progressed so much that today, IBM has 18 Quantum Computers. Quantum computers are 100 million times faster than traditional computers we use in the lab.
Quantum computers use qubits, which are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons. Generating and managing qubits is a scientific and engineering challenge. Qubits have some quirky quantum properties that mean a connected group of them can provide way more processing power than the same number of binary bits. One of those properties is known as superposition and another is called entanglement.
One might ask, what sped up the process of evolution?
Answer: DATA (Synonyms: knowledge, information, numbers, letters, words, symbols, languages……)
And what is data?
Data is everything in this universe. Everything visible and invisible to the eye, from birth to death, microorganisms, every nanosecond, and every breath we take and every word in this article that you are reading is data.
“The universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomena or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing and we may interpret the entire human species as a single data processing system, with individual humans serving as it’s chips.”
— Yuval Noah Harari.
The universe is full of data, treasured inside; we humans are making it free.
How does that happen?
Answer: We collect (whatever is available, even if it is a zero, IT MATTERS!) we clean, transform, analyze, build models, train the models, and then predict more data.
And I’m not just talking about the mundane of a Dataist; that is what every brain does to grow and progress, starting from their first breath to their last.
If that is what everybody does, why Dataists?
Answer: The human brain is occult, and it has its software, hardware, and tools to collect, transform, analyze, and predict its data needed to support our bodies. But that isn’t sufficient.
Like human bodies, the fictional legal authorities we invented, (organizations, factories, schools, etc..) need data for their survival as well, and we need them. We need products, money, our smartphones running, we need amazon, Netflix and we need the best services and quality products. We need vast amounts of data to improve the existing products or services and develop new technologies, products, and services with higher quality to match the standards.
Let me tell you four factors which pushed us to battle for data:
1. Admittance of ignorance.
2. The centrality of observation and mathematics.
3. The idea of progress.
4. Acquisition of new powers.
By analyzing the data collected from the history if we observe ever since the scientific revolution (500 years back), there was no single day our human race stopped running the race of acquisition of power and progress. We invented, discovered, and founded many businesses, products, systems, institutions, organizations, etc. We didn’t stop there; we reinvent (still reinventing), improvising, advancing, and renewing everything at a higher speed than in the past. This phenomenon is called The Law of Accelerating Returns.
“Evolution applies positive feedback, the more capable methods resulting from one stage of evolutionary progress are used to create the next stage.”
- Ray Kurzweil
To understand this phenomenon, let us take an example from the book ‘The Singularity is near’:
The first human genome sequenced in 2004 at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, but now, machines can sequence 18,000 annually for $1,000 a genome.
Right now, we are in a place where data is an essential wealth a person can earn, and it is the time than ever before in history to use this data wisely, and that is where people like me (the Dataists) come in play.
As the world’s data grows exponentially every minute, the gap between advances is decreasing exponentially.
In 2020, with so many advancements and technologies, data-driven jobs are on high demand, but the supply is low. From the above infographic, we can infer that in the future market for data-driven professionals will also grow exponentially. And in the next 50 years, it wouldn’t be a wonder if every task is automated, and every individual has to be data-driven for accomplishing their respective job responsibilities.
Again, let me remind you, it is just a fine line between advancement and disruption. And both are possible with data.
I vividly remember as a kid, my grandmother always explaining how knowledge is wealth, and not knowing what she meant, but here I’m, trying to explain the same by connecting the dots. I cannot be more grateful to her for planting the seed of envisioning in my mind so young.
This article is the first one in a series, the following articles will guide beginners into data-driven fields, illustrate the four pillars for a strong foundation and also bust few myths, which hold you back.
In the next article, I would discuss getting started as a data professional (Enter the world of Data EP.2).
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