Data: Emerging Trends and Technologies

Chapter 2. Computational Power and Cognitive Augmentation

Here’s a look at a few of the ways that humans—still the ultimate data processors—mesh with the rest of our data systems: how computational power can best produce true cognitive augmentation.

Deciding better

Over the past decade, we fitted roughly a quarter of our species with sensors. We instrumented our businesses, from the smallest market to the biggest factory. We began to consume that data, slowly at first. Then, as we were able to connect data sets to one another, the applications snowballed. Now that both the front-office and the back-office are plugged into everything, business cares. A lot.

While early adopters focused on sales, marketing, and online activity, today, data gathering and analysis is ubiquitous. Governments, activists, mining giants, local businesses, transportation, and virtually every other industry lives by data. If an organization isn’t harnessing the data exhaust it produces, it’ll soon be eclipsed by more analytical, introspective competitors that learn and adapt faster.

Whether we’re talking about a single human made more productive by a smartphone turned prosthetic brain; or a global organization gaining the ability to make more informed decisions more quickly, ultimately, Strata + Hadoop World has become about deciding better.

What does it take to make better decisions? How will we balance machine optimization with human inspiration, sometimes making the best of the current game and other ...