The current Harper’s first selection features stunningly direct testimony about data. This particular Senate committee receives scalding criticism over the way the GDP is used by the government and the media to measure societal well-being, for which purpose he argues the GDP is wholly inadequate, rather than to measure economic activity, which it actually measures.
As more public data sources become accessibly public, and therefore become integrated into the way we perceive our lives and our country, we’ll need to learn some new lessons about what specific data sets mean, and how to draw well-reasoned conclusions. Easy communication creates new questions about disclosure policy, data provenance, and shared responsibility for societal information. Among those questions should certainly be “What does this actually mean?” or, “What judgments can we actually make on this basis?”.
The testimony is damning.
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Old Bogus // Jun 1, 2008 at 9:18 pm
This implies that improved economic conditions don’t make people better of. And we all know that an improved economy “floats all boats equally”. Heretics. Ayn Rand has to be turning in her grave. [end sarcasm]
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