Big Data

Big Data refers to the massive-scale collection, storage, and computational analysis of datasets too large and complex for traditional methods, which typically emphasizes raw pattern extraction and continuous extraction from whole populations rather than theory-driven hypothesis testing or sampling. In critical discourse it denotes both a technological phenomenon and an epistemology that drives contemporary investment, biopolitical concerns, and competitive harvesting of data.

Claims that use this term

• Machine learning underlies Big Data and drives today’s massive investment.
• Big Data logic rejects theory-driven hypothesis testing in favor of raw pattern extraction
• Big Data epistemology replaces population sampling with continuous extraction from whole populations
• No single corporation possesses the claimed ‘all’ of Big Data because harvesting is competitive
• Biopolitical population statistics cannot reach the psyche that Big Data exploits
• Big Data is blind to the singular event that actually shapes history