Since Aristotle, we have fought to understand the causes behind everything. But this ideology is fading. In the age of big data, we can crunch an incomprehensible amount of information, providing us with invaluable insights about the what rather than the why.
We're just starting to reap the benefits: tracking vital signs to foresee deadly infections, predicting building fires, anticipating the best moment to buy a plane ticket, seeing inflation in real time and monitoring social media in order to identify trends. But there is a dark side to big data. Will it be machines, rather than people, that make the decisions? How do you regulate an algorithm? What will happen to privacy? Will individuals be punished for acts they have yet to commit?
In this groundbreaking and fascinating book, two of the world's most-respected data experts reveal the reality of a big data world and outline clear and actionable steps that will equip the reader with the tools needed for this next phase of human evolution.
《大数据时代》是国外大数据系统研究的先河之作,本书作者维克托·迈尔·舍恩伯格被誉为“大数据商业应用第1人”,拥有在哈佛大学、牛津大学、耶鲁大学和新加坡国立大学等多个互联网研究重镇任教的经历,早在2010年就在《经济学人》上发布了长达14页对大数据应用的前瞻性研究。
维克托·尔耶·舍恩伯格在本书中前瞻性地指出,大数据带来的信息风暴正在变革我们的生活、工作和思维,大数据开启了一次重大的时代转型,并用三个部分讲述了大数据时代的思维变革、商业变革和管理变革。
维克托具洞见之处在于,他明确指出,大数据时代的转变就是,放弃对因果关系的渴求,而取而代之关注相关关系。也就是说只要知道“是什么”,而不需要知道“为什么”。这颠覆了千百年来人类的思维惯例,对人类的认知和与世界交流的方式提出了全新的挑战。
本书认为大数据的核心就是预测。大数据将为人类的生活创造前所未有的可量化的维度。大数据已经成为了新发明和新服务的源泉,而更多的改变正蓄势待发。书中展示了谷歌、微软、IBM、苹果、facebook、twitter、VISA等大数据先锋们具价值的应用案例。