Big Data Revolution

Are there ways to foresee the outbreak of conflict? Foretell the onset of famine or drought in time to take preventive measures?

Fukushima teaches us that in a hyper-connected global world, any event in any of its four corners will have an unavoidable impact on the rest of the planet. This opens up unexplored avenues of potential developments and scenarios that bring with them inevitable doubts, fears and alarmism. Who, we ask, will have the power to manage all this data in circulation? What chance do I have to exercise some form of control over information that concerns me? How might privacy be safeguarded?

Every question encompasses a challenge, and each concern – albeit legitimate – hides a wealth of opportunity.

We stand on the threshold of a new revolution.

Humanity’s great vision – the ability to look into the future and predict how society will evolve – is close to becoming reality.

Data is knowledge; and the quantity of available data that now seems to border on ‘infinite’ represents an invaluable pool of knowledge.

The Web is an increasingly rich treasure trove of information. However, social networks have also created an outlet for ‘emotional’ components left by Internauts. The constructive use of such components requires us to be able to ‘skim’, decipher, decode and interpret them successfully.

It is therefore necessary to develop a holistic view of the world; seeing it as a set of components that interact with one another to give rise to not just a complex system, but a real “organism” in all senses of the word.

Within this system, Internet acts as a mirror for reality, able as it is to interact bidirectionally. On the one hand, Internet describes reality; on the other, it stimulates, influences and conditions it – and much faster than any other social transition previously experienced.

The way that has been paved for such a radically new age to begin would have been unthinkable just a few years ago – even by the most visionary science fiction writers of their time. Or rather, to finish with the words of William Gibson, “The future of Science Fiction? We’re living in it.”