His confidence in the technology is greatly overrated. The problem will be twofold: (1) Even if the tech is applied without an agenda, the false positives will overwhelm the useful predictions; (2) If the government gets its hands on this, the power will be abused—the definition of crazy will end up including most conservatives and libertarians.
You....and others here....are correct. The author is obviously enamored of/with high tech and sees “Big Data” as the answer.
Ask the author what “Big Data” really means. I’m ~30 years in the computer industry and currently work for a “household name” multinational company in the biz. My specialty is, and has been for over a decade, high performance computing (”HPC”, or supercomputing as it used to be called).
“Big Data” is a much over-hyped phrase these days. It simply refers to a well-known problem of “gee.....what do we do with all this data we’re producing/receiving??” Not earth shaking, and nothing magical about it.
Databases are only as valuable as their design; the ability to extract pertinent information that may be useful (think “data mining”). There CAN be very real value in such tools, but it’s more complicated than the author implies.
I can ensure, for example, that I get the answers I want. If I design a specific search pattern with a preconceived end result....guaranteed I can come up with that desired result (”lies, damned lies, statistics” isn’t an old saying for nothing).
If Uncle Sugar decided to implement some massive new database complete with their own analytics designed to identify specific gun threats.....think they’ll find them, given they have the ability to define what a threat is in advance?
Damned right they can....and absolutely would.
Systems today can be marvelous tools for modeling and analysis. These beasts are my bread and butter (literally) and I know their power well. I also know they’re only as good as their users and their software.
“If the government gets its hands on this, the power will be abused—the definition of crazy will end up including most conservatives and libertarians.”
YES!!! SHOUT THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!
Don’t you get it, people? (OK, most of us FReepers do)