Jazzing Up The Data

Abstract

In June 2008, Wired’s Chris Anderson proclaimed the end of science-as-we-know-it, welcoming us with the above words to the Petabyte Age. The reasons why the Petabyte Age is different are plenty. For once, we don’t even have a working analogy for where we store today’s huge amounts of information (not in folders, cabinets or libraries … so in what?). But the fundamental reason is that we need to approach it differently, and that new approach will change our view of science. There’s an increasing amount of data being collected for a reason, and that data is changing the name of the game.

The quest for knowledge used to begin with grand theories. Now it begins with massive amounts of data. Welcome to the Petabyte Age.

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired¹