Being a “data guy” I’m always fascinated how data changes the world and how the world is going to be more data driven.
I did not know I was a dataist until I read the fantastic book Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari (please find a review and links to buy here).
We think about huge corporations all around the world as perfect data processing superbrains looking at every aspect of our lives. Well, in some cases this is surely the reality: just ask somebody in on-line advertising. (Just check out what dimensions Google offers you in their demographic module, or, check out what Oracle can tell about you by just visiting their website).
We as a society are aware of this: by introducing GDPR we made an important step to set limits what our data should be used for.
I know from experience that not all corporations are this advanced. Also we are far from harnessing the full potential of the data and embedding it in our decisions. (We are too much driven by our “System 1” as you can read in an other must-read.)
In spite of this it is obvious that data is the single central element of the coming years.
One exciting aspect is that just by conducting our lives in the digital world we generate data. This data is then used by the economy to generate money. Would it be fair to treat data as labor? Could we even get a salary for allowing corporations to use our data?
I’m starting to read the book Radical Markets from Eric Posner and Glen Weyl today to learn their opinions.
What is yours?