Data History: Information Overload from the Enlightenment to Google

Undergraduate / Graduate

The current era of "Big Data" is often described as a new paradigm in science: increasingly, in fields ranging from molecular genetics to particle physics to internet search analytics, knowledge is produced by processing massive electronic databases with digital algorithms that tell us who we are, what the universe is made of , and why we think and act the way we do. At the same time, the tools, techniques, and social implications of modern data culture have a deep history that stretches back well before the advent of digital computers. Understanding the world by collecting and analyzing large quantities of information has been a goal in the natural and social sciences for centuries, and this history has shaped our current fascination with data in important and surprising ways. This course will examine the long-term history of data in critical historical context. We will examine how data has been collected, managed, and analyzed in the sciences over the past few centuries - the emergence of various technologies and conventions for information processing - as well as why it has been such a central concern in so many disciplines - what was understood to be the goal of reducing the world to data. We will also consider what social and political consequences the history of data reveals, and we will discuss the ethical and epistemological concerns that have emerged as science has become increasingly oriented towards collecting and manipulating large quantities of data.