Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence

Chapter One. The Inescapable Data Vision

	There is a way in which technology is inexorable, so I doubt there is a way to stop any of this.
	--Harvard University Sociologist Nicholas Christakis

If you look closely, you will see data collection and emission devices all around, often discreetly located and sometimes barely detectable—things such as mobile phones that double as Internet gateways, chemical sniffers in major cities, discrete radio tags on commercial products, and video cameras (seemingly everywhere, and sometimes in some curious places).

These devices are already ubiquitous, and their numbers are growing at a furious pace—from home electronics and appliances to video-surveillance cameras on school buses to sensory microchips embedded ...