Help
Sign In
black swan
May 2009 
The End of Theory Opens Up Serendipity
~C4Chaos
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
Here's a very interesting article on WIRED.
The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete
"Petabytes allow us to say: "Correlation is enough." We can stop looking for models. We can analyze the data without hypotheses about what it might show. We can throw the numbers into the biggest computing clusters the world has ever seen and let statistical algorithms find patterns where science cannot.
"The best practical example of this is the shotgun gene sequencing by J. Craig Venter. Enabled by high-speed sequencers and supercomputers that statistically analyze the data they produce, Venter went from sequencing individual organisms to sequencing entire ecosystems. In 2003, he started sequencing much of the ocean, retracing the voyage of Captain Cook. And in 2005 he started sequencing the air. In the process, he discovered thousands of previously unknown species of bacteria and other life-forms." [read more]
This reminded of the book, The Black Swan (see my review). Theoretical models are useful as starting points and for framing but in the long run our human tendency to categorize (Platonicity) and explain the causes of everything with theories (narrative fallacy) backed up with partial evidence (confirmation bias; fallacy of silent evidence) while concocting models of reality (ludic fallacy) make us blind to Black Swans (i.e. high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations).
In this Petabyte Age, mathematics, statistics, and a dose of serendipity trump theory. But that's in the realm science, not philosophy.
Access: Public
Glad you posted this. Someone just emailed the article to me earlier today. I'm not sure what to think about it. They way you described the development makes me optimistic about the future of science and information technology. But at the same time, I am concerned that this might further trivialize the relationship of ontology to epistemology and technology. In other words, this use of information technology to forego the need to theorize may, if co-opted by the capitalist machine (if? …it already has been, but I'll play dumb for the sake of argument), become a purely instrumental pursuit of profit without concern for deeper issues like “what is life?” or “how do human beings relate to the rest of the natural world?” People like Craig Venter, who may end up developing biotechnology that saves a lot of lives and solves our energy crisis, is nonetheless trying to patent organisms. I find this idea pernicious. As if a single human being ought to profit off the work of 3.5 billion years of evolution? These new information technologies will be a blessing for engineers and the companies that employ them, but a tremendous moral challenge for the rest of us. I just hope we're spiritually prepared (ie, wise enough) for the material might we are doubtlessly developing.
“People like Craig Venter, who may end up developing biotechnology that saves a lot of lives and solves our energy crisis, is nonetheless trying to patent organisms. I find this idea pernicious. As if a single human being ought to profit off the work of 3.5 billion years of evolution?”
yep. this is exactly what Michael Crichton criticized on his latest novel, NEXT. Crichton discussed this with Charlie Rose before expounding his controversial (and minority) position on global warming.
~C