Measuring the Digital World: Using Digital Analytics to Drive Better Digital Experiences

Preface: Measuring the (Digital) World

How do we understand the world around us? It’s not so obvious.

Our senses feed a never-ending stream of data into our brains. In its raw form, that data is incredibly complex. Shapes, surfaces, sizes, shades, motions, scents, textures—we absorb them all, seemingly without effort. Even the most powerful supercomputers yet developed cannot begin to compete in real time. But the plastic mind of human babies—with the help, no doubt, of some careful pre-wiring—can learn how to make sense of this data, parse it, and react swiftly and intelligently to this tidal surge of information.

For centuries, philosophers have understood that the very existence of a world outside ourselves is impossible to verify. We know ...