Big Data

Introduction

Our philosophical literature is full of intricate accounts of causal theories of perception, yet they have curiously little do with real life. We have fantastical descriptions of aberrant causal chains which, Gettier-style, call in question this or that conceptual analysis. But the modem microscopist has far more amazing tricks than the most imaginative of armchair students of perception. What we require in philosophy is better awareness of the truths that are stranger than fictions. We ought to have some understanding of those astounding physical systems “by whose augmenting power we now see more/than all the world has ever done before”.

Ian Hacking, “Est-ce qu’on voit à travers un microscope?” (1981)

Every innovation in knowledge technologies disrupts our relationship with reality, increasing our perception, memory and reasoning abilities. Scientific measuring instruments dedicated to observation reveal new aspects of reality, while tools dedicated to manipulation give us the ability to intervene in what is no longer immaculate nature, but a system made up of what we have found and what we have brought to it. The telescope has given us access to what is at a distance, the microscope to infinitely small particles and the X-ray has given access to the inner side of the material. Closer to home, the advent of digital technology has reinvented the way we record and share our knowledge. It is a new material for action and knowledge, as well as a new tool for manipulating ...