12 june 2012, woods and trees

I remained unable to quite grasp the power of technology, and to be master rather than servant of the unstoppable flow of information that comes to me even directly by email, let alone the infinite vistas of intelligence available on the internet, but which without a map are utterly suffocating. One thing I've always thought myself good at was quickly getting a grasp of an issue, and then constructing from it an understandable narrative. Before doing that though, you need understanding, and an ability to check and validate, which is where the now endless waterfall of information becomes a barrier, as to wait for its end is to drown. I've noted before (28 march 2010) that in 2003 it took 10 years to analyse 3 billion bits of data and unlock the human genome; it now takes a week. There is simply too much information. We must not though be scared, because data only tells us so much. I am always sceptical, using instinct, context and precedent as much as numbers. Josiah stamp got it about right, "the government are very keen on amassing statistics - they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn well pleases."