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  3. Now, you probably all have heard the term big data. In fact, you’re probably

Now, you probably all have heard the term big data. In fact, you’re probably

游客2023-12-30  6
问题     Now, you probably all have heard the term big data. In fact, you’re probably sick of hearing the term big data. It is true that there is a lot of hype around the term, and that is very unfortunate, because big data is an extremely important tool by which society is going to advance. In the past, we used to look at small data and think about what it would mean to try to understand the world, and now we have a lot more of it, more than we ever could before. What we find is that when we have a large body of data, we can fundamentally do things that we couldn’t do when we only had smaller amounts. Big data is important, and big data is new, and when you think about it, the only way this planet is going to deal with its global challenges — to feed people, supply them with medical care, supply them with energy, electricity, and to make sure they’re not burnt to a crisp because of global warming — is because of the effective use of data.
    So what is new about big data? What is the big deal? Well, to answer that question, let’s think about what information looked like, physically looked like in the past. In 1908, on the island of Crete, archaeologists discovered a clay disc. They dated it from 2000 B. C. , so it’s 4, 000 years old. Now, there’s inscriptions on this disc, but we actually don’t know what it means. It’s a complete mystery, but the point is that this is what information used to look like 4, 000 years ago. This is how society stored and transmitted information.
    Now, society hasn’t advanced all that much. We still store information on discs, but now we can store a lot more information, more than ever before. Searching it is easier. Copying it easier. Sharing it is easier. Processing it is easier. And what we can do is we can reuse this information for uses that we never even imagined when we first collected the data. In this respect, the data has gone from a stock to a flow, from something that is stationary and static to something that is fluid and dynamic. There is, if you will, a liquidity to information. The disc that was discovered off of Crete that’s 4, 000 years old, is heavy, it doesn’t store a lot of information, and that information is unchangeable. By contrast, all of the files that Edward Snowden took from the National Security Agency in the United States fits on a memory stick the size of a fingernail, and it can be shared at the speed of light.
    Now, one reason why we have so much data in the world today is we are collecting things that we’ve always collected information on, but another reason why is we’re taking things that have always been informational but have never been rendered into a data format and we are putting it into data. Think, for example, the question of location. Take, for example, Martin Luther. If we wanted to know in the 1500s where Martin Luther was, we would have to follow him at all times, maybe with a feathery quill and an inkwell, and record it, but now think about what it looks like today. You know that somewhere, probably in a telecommunications carrier’s database, there is a spreadsheet or at least a database entry that records your information of where you’ve been at all times. If you have a cell phone, and that cell phone has GPS, but even if it doesn’t have GPS, it can record your information. In this respect, location has been datafied.
    Now think, for example, of the issue of posture, the way that you are all sitting right now, the way that you sit, the way that you sit, the way that you sit. It’s all different, and it’s a function of your leg length and your back and the contours of your back, and if I were to put sensors, maybe 100 sensors into all of your chairs right now, I could create an index that’s fairly unique to you, sort of like a fingerprint, but it’s not your finger.
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答案     你或许听说过大数据这个词，事实上，你可能对这个词已经心生厌恶。确实，大数据受到了空前的宣传炒作，这很不应该，因为大数据是一个非常重要的工具，社会将由此而不断进步。过去我们习惯于处理小数据、思考这些小数据的意义并以此来了解世界。现在我们有很多很多的数据，数据量前所未有的巨大。当我们掌握海量数据时我们可以做一些事，一些在只有较少数据时不可能办到的事。大数据很重要，它也是一个新兴事物，想象一下它能够帮助我们应对世界性难题，像食物短缺、医疗短缺、能源短缺、电力短缺还有确保人类家园不会因为全球变暖而生灵涂炭的唯一办法是有效利用大数据。
    那么大数据新在何处，重在何处呢?为了回答这个问题，让我们想一下信息看上去是什么样的，在以前是什么样的?1908年在克里特岛上(注：位于地中海，为希腊第一大岛)考古学家发现了一个黏土做的盘子，这是个公元前2000年的盘子，距今约有4000年的历史。盘子上有铭文，但是我们不知道它们是什么意思，这完全是个谜团。但这就是4000年前信息的样子，这就是当时社会存储和传递信息的方式。
    现代社会也没有什么很大的进步，我们还是把数据存储在盘中(注：指磁盘)，但我们可以存储更多的信息，远远超过以前的信息容量。这些信息搜索和复制起来更简单，分享和处理起来也更便捷。我们也可以重新利用这些信息，它有一些我们当初收集的时候从来没有想过的用途。从这个方面来说数据已经从储存状态到了流动状态、从静态的统计性的数据变成动态的数据流，这就是信息的流动性。克里特岛发现的黏土盘有4000年的历史，非常笨重，不能记录太多的信息，并且它所记录的信息是不能更改的。与此相反，爱德华-斯诺登从美国国家安全局所获得的文件可以放在一个仅有指甲大小的存储盘里，并且可以以光速进行数据共享。
    今天我们有这么多数据的一个原因是，针对已经了解颇多的事物继续收集信息；另一个原因是，我们记录了许多蕴含丰富信息的事物，但是从没把信息转换成数据形式，现在我们正在把信息转变成数据。想一想，举个例子，定位问题，比如我们想知道马丁-路德16世纪在哪里，我们必须一直跟着他或许用羽毛笔和墨水把这些情况记录下来。那现今是什么样的情形呢?在某些地方可能在电信运营商的数据库里有个电子数据表，或者至少一个数据条目记录着所有关于你任何时候在什么地点的信息。如果你有个手机，这个手机有全球定位系统，或者即使没有全球定位系统，它还是可以记录你的信息，从这方面来说，位置信息被数据化了。
    再举个例子，关于姿势，你们现在坐着的姿势、你坐着的姿势、你的坐姿，还有你的坐姿，这些都不一样。这是一个关于腿长、你的背部和背部轮廓的函数。如果我现在放一些传感器或许是100个传感器在你的椅子里，我可以算出你独一无二的参数，就像你的指纹，但这不是关于你的手指的。
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