[LINK] A New Paradigm of Science

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Oh look, a database software designer comes up with a new paradigm of 
science based upon an "exaflood" of data. Oooh, scary. Reminds me of 
hammers and nails.

Data in a computer, on their own are meaningless. Data only have meaning 
when you know what they represent. And even then they can have different 
interpretations. And even then the reality can change over time without 
the data in the computer also changing. Data decay, data can be wrong, 
data can mean different things to different people.

You can put numbers into a computer and call them data, but you 
can't/shouldn't trust them. Numbers in a computer can be very 
unreliable. Just ask someone who keeps getting rung up by his bank 
because they have the wrong phone number in their system. IMHO, you 
certainly can't make the sort of claim made in that article about a new 
paradigm of science.

Data in a computer can be very valuable, but only if properly fed and 
watered. An exaflood is likely to take on a life of its own, independent 
of reality. Analysis and conclusions based upon such feral data will be 
bad science.

Just a thought.

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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au