The Dark Shadow Shrine

embrace the darkness; that you may see the light nestled within it......

Friday, July 29, 2016

We are all cyborgs now

Click HERE

Note the opening BANG in intro using a famous anecdote/eg from a famous novel to introduce the topic of discussion....
and the closing BANG using Orwell's 'Big Brother' with the twist on 'Little cousins' and the echoing of 'cyborgs' in intro....

Another useful thing to take away with is the recent chilling example of:
Furthermore, Big Data can at times become Bad Data: erroneous or deceiving information, like the false Facebook post that the Munich terrorist allegedly made, offering free food to lure as many people as possible to the local McDonald's.

double-edged sword of social media:
information collected on the Internet can be a great resource for the forces of order (videos allowed for the swift identification of the killer). But the same data can be used for evil, as was recalled by these same Bavarian policemen, who recommended that no one post any information that could be useful to runaway terrorists.

The problem with statistics or info procured online, and the rebuttal using online cross-referencing verification:
Aggregated data can equally conceal pitfalls. As the 19th-century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once put it: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Something similar could be said today, in the era of Big Data. It is crucial to examine the quality of the information we collect - preferably involving citizens in the verification process. A key aspect of the Web is that it's democratic and "autocritic" - that is, capable of monitoring itself.


Qn: Discuss the view that too much faith is placed in statistics.