This document outlines Luciano Floridi's ideas about big data and the challenges it presents. It discusses three main ideas: hyperhistory and how data has been collected since ancient Sumer; the infosphere and how technology has expanded our data environment; and how data collection represents a fourth revolution in human understanding. It then addresses the rise of big data in terms of power, cost, and what it can do. Challenges of big data are also outlined, as well as the problem that small patterns in data may be individually insignificant but meaningful when aggregated or absent. The conclusion stresses the importance of asking and answering questions about data.

1. BIG DATA AND THEIR PROBLEM
Luciano Floridi
www.philosophyofinformation.net
Research Chair in Philosophy of Information
UNESCO Chair in Information and Computer Ethics
University of Hertfordshire
Faculty of Philosophy &
Department of Computer Science
University of Oxford

2. OUTLINE
 Three Ideas
 Time: Hyperhistory
 Space: Infosphere
 Agents: the Fourth Revolution
 Big Data
 Their Rise
 Their Challenges
 The Problem and its Solution
 Conclusion

3. FIRST IDEA – TIME: HYPERHISTORY
 No ICTs
 Individual and social well-being
independent of ICT
 Individual and social well-being
dependent on ICT

4. FIRST IDEA – TIME: HYPERHISTORY
First Big Data Society: Ur, city state in Sumer (Iraq).
End of the third millennium: the most developed and
centralized bureaucratic state in the world.
Library of more than 500,000 clay tablets.
Business and Administration documents.

5. SECOND IDEA – SPACE: INFOSPHERE
Today the world adapts to smart technologies
limited capacities increasingly well.
Enveloping the world without fully realising it.

6. SECOND IDEA – SPACE: INFOSPHERE
Dishwasher vs. Humanoid Robot

7. SECOND IDEA – SPACE: INFOSPHERE
20
17.5
15
12.5
10
Ca. 18% of EU population used a laptop to access
the internet, via wireless away from home or work.
7.5
5
2.5
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

8. SECOND IDEA – SPACE: INFOSPHERE
BIG GREEN DATA?

9. SECOND IDEA – SPACE: INFOSPHERE
Inside the computer
Outside the computer

10. THIRD IDEA – AGENTS: THE FOURTH REVOLUTION
Knowledge, Science, Technology change our
understanding in two fundamental ways.
Introvert or about ourselves.
Extrovert or about the world.

11. THIRD IDEA – AGENTS: THE FOURTH REVOLUTION
We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe
(Copernicus).
We are not unnaturally detached and diverse from the
rest of the animal world (Darwin).
We are not Cartesian subjects entirely transparent to
ourselves (Freud).
We are not disconnected agents, but
informational organisms (inforgs),
sharing with biological and engineered
agents the infosphere (Turing).

12. THE RISE OF BIG DATA
POWER
Moor’s Law
1m fold in 40 years

13. THE RISE OF BIG DATA
$ 100 trillions
Qatar (57/190) GDP 98 trillions
COST
iPad: 1600m IPS, 1/100m in 40 yrs, 1/1000b in 60 yrs

14. THE RISE OF BIG DATA
1 exabyte = 50,000 yrs of DVD
5 exabytes = all the words ever spoken

15. THE RISE OF BIG DATA
improve
innovate taylor
what BD can do for you
Big
Data
decide predict
simulate

16. THE CHALLENGES OF BIG DATA
Acquisition/Storage
Quality/Usability
Security/Safety
Accessibility
Analytics
Law/Ethics
Costs
Not enough space

17. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
Small patterns

18. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
Small patterns may be insignificant: half of your
data is junk, you just do not know which half.

19. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
25 products allow Target to assign
each shopper a “pregnancy
prediction” score, estimate her due
date and send coupons timed to
specific stages of her pregnancy.
Small patterns may be significant if aggregated:
loyalty cards and shopping suggestions.

20. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
Small patterns may be significant if compared:
same credit card used in two places/same time.

21. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
Small patterns may be significant if absent:
the silence of the dog.

22. THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA
Q A I
what we need what we have what we want

23. CONCLUSION
a knower is “the man who knows how to ask and
answer questions” (Plato, Cratylus, 390c)

24. BIG DATA AND THEIR PROBLEM
Luciano Floridi
www.philosophyofinformation.net
THANK YOU!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to Sander Duivestein, Menno van Doorn, SOGETI,
and all the staff who made the meeting possible.
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