Unsupervised

CHAPTER 8Reinventing Information and Communication

“If information is power, why are the powerful so ill informed?”

—Arthur Curley

Information Is Power

There is a big difference between the knowledge economy and the frontier technologies on which it is based. In the early post-industrial world, the knowledge economy has, to a large degree, grown independently of many of these technologies. However, the massive growth in computer power has accelerated the scope and speed of data gathering and its use in virtually every aspect of our lives.

Today, more than ever in history, data holds the key to power dynamics, and governments around the world are becoming more aware of the advantages to them of collecting and controlling as much as possible. Much of this is benign and done purely for necessary organizational purposes and/or with the best of intentions. However, it also poses a range of both practical and ethical issues.

There are four categories of data collection:

• Information voluntarily provided by individuals and organizations.
• Information openly “collected” for legal, regulatory, or other legitimate reasons by public and private sector groups.
• Information collected legally, but without the knowledge of those affected.
• Illegally acquired information.

Until recently, the amount of data generated (and even archived) was well beyond any means to mold it into usable formats. The acceleration of computer processing, combined with algorithmic advances fueled by AI, is changing ...