Machines don’t make the essential and important connections among data and they don’t create information. Humans do. Tools have the power to make work easier and solve problems. A tool is an enabler, facilitator, accelerator and magnifier of human capability, not its replacement or surrogate — though artificial intelligence engines like Watson and WolframAlpha (or more likely their descendants) might someday change that. That’s what the software architect Grady Booch had in mind when he uttered that famous phrase: “A fool with a tool is still a fool.”
Big Data’s Human Component
Analytical programs don’t find the real insights in big data. People do.
September 17, 2012
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Excel in a world that's being continually transformed by technology.