What happens when people and authorities have the information they need to see clearly what is right and wrong? The relevant information at that point will involve big data. The time will come when we can collect and use big data for the right reasons, using it to create a sustainable future for a growing civilisation.
We are at the beginning of our time with big data. It is time to consider what we want from our technologies and challenge those who say all hope is gone. We are the hope; we are all we have. Let us use global data to ensure what we do supports social security, economic balance and basic human rights for everyone involved.
With big data we may help people who struggle with unclear information. It may provide accurate answers and options, whatever you want to call them. Let us call them Positive Possible Solutions.
How will we collect the data?
The first thing I want to mention is sensors. They come in all shapes and sizes, with different types depending on where and how they are used, developing from advanced to highly advanced.
Not only sensors, but connected machines and devices: machines that can connect to the internet or have a memory chip to collect data. They might be in a wind or solar farm collecting statistics — chances are they already are — or be devices we already hold in our hands, whose data companies already collect.
There are also devices in our kitchens or gardens. I have seen electronics that measure garden soil and automatically water what is needed. This information could also be collected as statistics for future improvements.
Every kind of machine used in industry, or machines at a waste collection site, could have sensors in areas where there is a reason to use them.
Sensors are getting cheaper and more advanced at the same time. The use of sensors and machines capable of collecting data will therefore increase each year.
Finally, we could collect data using drones with autonomous systems, flying or driving into an emergency area or other location where information is needed.
What kind of data will we collect?
We should be able to collect data wherever people find a good preventive reason. Why preventive? Because prevention should keep us safer: from earthquakes, industrial disasters and traffic incidents.
As we develop intellectually as a species, our ability to predict should improve. Affordable sensors or drones covering areas at high risk could help us detect a forest fire before it becomes enormous.
We already collect data on climate change, but not enough. There are opportunities for better data. When we get our heads out of the sand and into the atmosphere, we can improve our understanding of the climate using information collected by sensors and drones.
We collect data on traffic around the globe and how much waste we throw away each year. We should also collect data on how we develop as a species and pay attention to ourselves. We can collect data about society: food and nutrition, what is healthy and how to grow food; working life, without being too intimate; public transport use, looking at commuters as a group rather than individuals; and development in society. Each topic should be one people can reasonably choose for themselves.
A differential pressure sensor.
How can we use the collected data?
We use data to prevent harm, create better conditions for ourselves and generations to come, and find solutions. Being able to predict is better than not being able to. What if sensors and drones can help prevent a natural or industrial disaster? Their cost is close to zero compared with what we receive in return.
Taken together, information and data collected using small, efficient technology can help civilisation move forward.
What then?
What next? People and authorities open their eyes and move beyond older views of humanity. A new perspective uses information based on data gathered from reasonable sources. Technological development increases our ability to understand.
