From the course: Ethics and Law in Data Analytics

Designing the data revolution

From the course: Ethics and Law in Data Analytics

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Designing the data revolution

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- The age of big data will bring a socioeconomic revolution because, over a very short period of time, big data will reorganize the way we live, work, and interact socially, much like the Agrarian Revolution and Industrial Revolution did. This revolution is inevitable because of the incomprehensible amount of data suddenly available about human activity and the things we use. The technology necessary to collect, store, process, and analyze this raw data in order to make it useful for gaining insights, data mining, it's called, is quickly increasing in sophistication. Businesses, governments, and other organizations are scrambling to take advantage of these technological advancements. With due respect to King Solomon's great wisdom, his proclamation that there is nothing new under the sun is getting a run for its money. The data revolution is coming, and it will benefit a lot of people in a lot of ways. We are data optimists, which means, among other things, that we are excited to see the changes that big data will bring. Enormous industries, such as healthcare, transportation, and criminal justice will become more intelligent, more efficient, and more accurate. Many needless harms of the past that were ultimately rooted in a lack of data will be eliminated. From an ethical perspective, this coming benefit is welcome. But, like all revolutions, this one will have both winners and losers. You don't need a crystal ball to see that, while many will benefit, the data revolution will inflict harms in two ways. It will give bad people new ways to be bad, and it will also inflict harm in unintended and unforeseen ways. Considering this mix of benefits and harms, there are four possible responses to the data revolution. One response is the desire to return to a pre-digital age or to stop technological progress. But, short of some severe global and permanent crisis, this is simply not realistic. The world is not going back to small data. A second response is unchecked optimism. Some people often embrace new technology simply because it is new and cool. But this is also a mistake. We believe that there will be coming harms and to ignore these is irresponsible. A third response is to feel uneasy about the big data revolution but accept it as inevitable. We all hear regular people voice this position when someone mentions how this or that new technology is a bit creepy and then, in the next sentence, you find out they use it, anyway. We prefer a fourth response, which is to accept the revolution as inevitable but to believe the revolution can and should be designed. It might help to think of Kevin Kelly's use of the word inevitable in his 2016 book by the same name. Inevitability, in this sense, allows for the possibility that the specifics might be otherwise. For example, we might say that, given that the human species is social, it was always inevitable that the digital world would eventually give us social media. But, while social media, itself, is inevitable, it's not inevitable that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram would be the biggest social media platforms, or that they would have developed the policies and procedures they did. That just happened. We believe strongly that, while it is not possible or desirable to stop the big data revolution, it is our responsibility to consider the kinds of harm that the use of data can inflict. And, once we have identified them, we must do what we can to design the revolution so that the predicted benefits of big data will come to complete fruition. It is thoughtful, considerate design of the revolution that is one of the biggest challenges of our generation. Just letting it happen is a recipe for disaster. How is such design possible? We believe that the two most important tools for designing this revolution are bodies of knowledge that have been with us for millennia, principles of law and principles of ethics. We hope that this course shows how these time-tested principles are relevant guides in this new human era.

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