Liberation by Numbers

Abstract

Modern societies are commonly characterised as large-scale producers of machines, foodstuffs, petro-chemicals, consumer goods and weapons. In other words modern societies make things. It is equally appropriate to see them as mass-producers of data. The production of data predates the industrial era. Many national archives contain legal or royal documents dating back a thousand years or more, but it was in Sweden in 1749 that the first systematic population records were developed. In the 19th century, data were mass-produced in the business of running metropolitan societies or administering colonies. In the 20th century, with the rapid expansion of technically advanced economies, the conduct of war and the development of welfare states, the production of data again increased rapidly. This was later aided by the capacity of computers to process, store and distribute data across departments of state, to the mass media and the public. ‘Data-overload’ entered the administrator’s vocabulary.