19 APR 2022 by ideonexus
Null Island
There is a special place on Earth at an equally interesting location. Although it has no spatial extent, it has a thriving community and digital economy: every day many people record their fitness activities, there are countless properties offered to sale and it is even the origin of malicious cyber attacks1. Many restaurants are located there, and delivery drivers are always available to make stops at vacation rentals, there is social media activity with millions of photos uploaded, and the ... 1 
notes
notes22 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Scent as Data in a Beehive
To shield her antennae from the many bruising signals in the air, she walked with her head low. Air currents and electrical pulses from thousands of bees rippled against her, but Flora ignored them all. The pulsing track alone held her focus, clear and simple across the perilously busy lobby, where she had to slow down because of the tempest of data underfoot.
A rush of workers came through in a tumult of scent and Flora lifted her head—then the rhythm of the foot-current drew her on. She ... 1 notes
notes24 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
"Big Data" is Just Repackaging Information
The owners of the biggest computers like to think about them as big artificial brains. But actually they are simply repackaging valuable information gathered from everyone else. This is what “big data” means.
For instance, a big remote Google or Microsoft computer can translate this op-ed, more or less, from English to another language, but what is really going on is that real human translators are being made anonymous, invisible, and insecure. Real translations, made by humans, are gath... 1 notes
notesInformation provided by other sources.
23 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
We Must Act Without All the Facts
It is not enough to say that we cannot know or judge because all the information is not in. The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A child's world spreads only a little beyond his understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts outward immeasurably. An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of new questions. So we draw worlds and fit them like tracings against the world about us, and crumple them when we find they do not fit and draw new ones. 1 notes
notesJust as children operate without all the data, we cannot use a lack of data to excuse inaction.
20 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Danger of Measurement
Measurement has too often been the leitmotif of many investigations rather than the experimental examination of hypotheses. Mounds of data are collected, which are statistically decorous and methodologically unimpeachable, but conclusions are often trivial and rarely useful in decision making. This results from an overly rigorous control of an insignificant variable and a widespread deficiency in the framing of pertinent questions. Investigators seem to have settled for what is measurable ins... 1 notes
notesIs that it can replace testing hypotheses. We gather data instead of validating exactly what it is we'd like to know.
30 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Facts VS Theories
Facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away while scientists debate rival theories for explaining them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air pending the outcome. 1 notes
notesFacts are data, theories are the best truths we have extrapolated from them.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Measuring Cultural Information
But there may be more significant ways to characterize civilizations than by the
energy they use for communications purposes. An important criterion of a
civilization is the total amount of information that it stores. This information can
be described in terms of bits, the number of yes-no statements concerning itself
and the universe that such a civilization knows.
An example of this concept is the popular game of "Twenty Questions," as
played on Earth. One player imagines an object or conc... 1 notes
notesThe number of bits communicated in our radio broadcasts is quite enormous, conveying a great deal of information about our culture.
15 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Comparing European and American Mammals and Livestock
Europe.
America.
lb.
lb.
Mammoth
Buffalo. Bison
*1800
White bear. Ours blanc
Caribou. Renne
Bear. Ours
153.7
*410
Elk. Elan. Orignal, palmated
Red deer. Cerf
288.8
*273
Fallow deer. Daim
167.8
Wolf. Loup
69.8
Roe. Chevreuil
56.7
Glutton. Glouton. Carcajou
Wild cat. Chat sauvage
30
Lynx. Loup cervier
25.
Beaver. Castor
18.5
*45
Badger. Blaireau
13.6
Red Fox. Renard
13.5
Grey Fox. Isatis
Otter. Loutre
8.9
12
Monax. Marmotte
...
1 Jefferson cataloges the sizes of animals in the two continents in order to refute the European idea that animals are larger and more advanced in the old world.
17 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Sherlock Holmes on the Need for Data
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Folksonomies: empiricism data
Folksonomies: empiricism data
1 notes
notesWithout data, we twist things to suit our preconceived notions.
