? The only source of human knowledge is the record and arrangement of past experience, and data is the carrier of this record, so the value of data lies in that it is the source of knowledge first. If traditional data is the source of some human knowledge, then with the continuous expansion of human records, big data in the modern sense will gradually become the source of all human knowledge.
Data is a measurement and record of the objective world, and this record is also a record of history and reality. 1869, when President Garfield modernized the American census system, he found that the data not only contained the laws of social development, but also provided a brand-new way to write history:
Today, historians study a country in general terms, and they can only tell us the history of emperors, generals and wars. But historians can't say much about the growth, various forces, details and laws of every life in our huge society, and the census has expanded our observation to people's houses, families, factories, coal mines, fields, prisons, hospitals and other places that show the strength and fragility of human nature, which has made a new historical record.
Looking back today, this statement is very forward-looking. As mankind enters the era of big data, data is not only the source of new knowledge, but also the most important, reliable and best way to record history. From now on, all human historical records, no matter numbers, documents, pictures or audio and video, will exist in the form of data, which is static history and history is dynamic data. Fragments of history are free data; The fog of history is fuzzy data; The blind spot of history is the missing data. The history built with data is always vivid because of the precise details. The more abundant the information, the more the later historians can reproduce the society at that time through the information.
In addition to discovering knowledge and recording history, this book believes that the peak form of human use of data is to train machines through data and let them acquire intelligence. In the near future, ubiquitous computing devices and networks will work and serve human beings like intelligent people. This means that we are moving towards an intelligent society. In this new social form, due to accurate calculation and prediction, all parts of the whole society can interlock and match like countless bearings and gears, daily management will be optimized through data, various tasks and cooperation can be seamlessly connected, the cost of social operation can be greatly reduced, and more importantly, more and more jobs will be replaced by computers or robots. This is both progress and challenge. Looking back on the agricultural era and industrial era, human beings have continuously developed the natural environment on which we live. From the surface to the underground, physical resources will eventually be exhausted, and big data will become an inexhaustible new resource for human beings. On this resource, through software and algorithms, human beings will build an intelligent world.
Data is becoming the most important soil and foundation in this world.
At this critical moment of social transformation, China, as a developing country that is catching up with developed countries, will be given unprecedented opportunities by history. For example, it took decades for the United States to establish a national credit system. Today, Alibaba can decide whether to issue loans in just a few minutes, because it has mastered the transaction flow data of customers. With abundant data in various places, China's national credit system may be established in a relatively short time and at a lower cost. For another example, with the popularity of the Internet, credit cards will be digitized and virtualized, and physical credit cards will be greatly reduced or even disappeared, which means that our banks don't have to build so many physical outlets and ATMs like Bank of America. For another example, because of the emergence of intelligent online education platform, the future educational resources will not be limited to reinforced concrete schools at all, and the shortage of educational resources in China may be quickly and greatly alleviated. In addition, the emergence of wearable computer equipment, intelligent software diagnosis system, telemedicine and other technologies will alleviate the shortage of medical resources and professionals.
All kinds of opportunities can be summarized as late-comer advantages.
Take the ATM of the bank as an example. As can be seen from the following table, in recent years, the number of ATMs in China has increased rapidly. In 20 12, China had an average of 375 ATMs per 65,438+million adults, but compared with developed countries such as Britain, America, Japan and Canada, our gap is still very large: Canada has 205 ATMs per 65,438+million adults, while the United States has 65,438+. If we want to narrow and level the data gap, China will definitely need years of efforts. However, due to the emergence and popularity of big data and internet finance, most financial transactions can be completed through virtual accounts. It can be predicted that the future society will not need so many physical deposit and withdrawal machines. If we can make a long-term and scientific plan now, we can cross the link of building these deposit and withdrawal machines and save the corresponding expenses, which is the advantage of backwardness.
Around 200 1, Mr. Yang Xiaokai, an economist in China, once suggested that if China only pays attention to technological imitation and neglects system construction, the advantage of backwardness may turn into disadvantage of backwardness, but I don't think the advantage of backwardness we have now belongs to this category. Now the advantage of backwardness is because human beings are striding forward from industrial civilization to information civilization. Because of the impact of big data and the arrival of intelligent society, some new methods appear in human vision to solve some old problems. These methods use software and data, not steel and cement!
But it is not easy to grasp this late-comer advantage in global competition. On the surface, the competition between countries is scientific and technological competition and economic competition, but in the final analysis, it is still the competition of national quality and culture. Without a healthy, rational and progressive culture, it is difficult for a country to be strong. The effort of this book is to try to turn the scientific and technological symbol of data into a cultural symbol in China, turn the topic of big data, a high-end elite, into a popular topic, and let the data culture enter the vision of China people and blend into the consciousness and blood of China people.
Faced with wave after wave of technology, governments all over the world (including developed countries in Europe and America) are actually slow to respond. The development of information technology today is not to promote social progress, but to promote social progress. As mentioned above, various supporting facilities and regulations in society have lagged behind the development of information technology. If we want to fully release the energy of technology, society must rebuild its own infrastructure and control system. Looking back on the gilded era and progressive era of the United States, it is in the transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society that the United States seized the opportunity at the right time, which not only successfully resolved the social crisis at that time, but also realized the rise of a great country. Now a new social form is coming to us. At this turning point, strategic choice is particularly important for any country, and the biggest responsibility and challenge is the government.
However, the construction and progress of any country cannot be completely tied to the government. Without mobilizing the power of the whole society and real citizens, the country's progress will lack long-term motivation, and the country's progress can only rely on external stimuli and external forces. Therefore, it will keep pace with the developed countries. There are many such examples and lessons in the change of feudal dynasties in China for thousands of years. Citizens, countless citizens, are the source of strength to promote the continuous progress of a society. For the decision-makers in China society, the key is to realize that the energy of new technology will upset the balance of power. Outside the traditional boundaries, some new and callable resources have emerged, and new ideas and means must be adopted to integrate and call these resources.
Change does not necessarily mean progress, but progress must be changed. We expect more progress and changes in China. This is due to the government of China, the public and the cultural innovation of China.
Data, since ancient times, census, agricultural statistics, military wars, political calculations, although small, are helpful to governing the country. The unbreakable foundation of data culture is one of the main reasons for America's prosperity.
In the era of information explosion, interconnection and smart cities, big data has swept the world with an unstoppable trend. Government governance, enterprise gold digging, and the public should be fair and just. Big data has been given a new historical mission.
In the book "Top of Data", from the era of small data to the rise of big data, the author shows us the panorama of data science and wisdom culture with the grand vision of history, culture and big data. Based on the founding of the United States, this book systematically combs the formation of American data culture, expounds its data governance, discusses the weaknesses of China's data culture and looks forward to the future of the data world by expounding the characteristics of early digital era, civil war era, gilded era, progressive era, sampling era and big data era.
Respecting facts, speaking with data, advocating intellectual rationality and innovating with data, the author not only intends to inherit the fire of digital management in Huang Renyu, but also tries to transform the scientific symbol of data into the cultural symbol of China and form a cultural discourse system.
The above is what Bian Xiao shared about the advantages of latecomers in the era of big data. For more information, you can pay attention to Global Ivy and share more dry goods.