[Fis] Is Dataism the end of classical hypothesis-driven research and the beginning of data-correlation-driven research?

[Dai Griffiths]

Mark Johnson wrote:

> So I want to ask a deeper question: Effective science and effective
> decision-making go hand-in-hand. What does an effective society
> operating in a highly ambiguous and technologically abundant
> environment look like? How does it use its technology for effective
> decision-making? My betting is it doesn't look anything like what
> we've currently got!

These are good questions, Mark.

Understanding 'science' as 'knowledge' it is plainly true that 
"Effective science and effective decision-making go hand-in-hand".

As a gloss on that comment, I would add that there is an imbalance. 
Decision-making aspires to universal applicability. If the state changes 
the tax regime then it expects all citizens to conform, and increasingly 
technology can be used to achieve that. But knowledge of the 
consequences to society and individuals of those changes to the tax 
regime is partial.

The state uses a regulatory framework, which is quite easily knowable, 
to regulate the chaotic interactions of society, which are complex to 
the degree that they are unknowable. In other words, governments use 
policy instruments to attenuate the variety of the society that they set 
out to regulate, and implicit in this is a recognition the impossibility 
of a complete knowledge of society. An open question is whether the 
tools of data surveillance can change or adjust that equation, and, if 
they can, whether that is desirable.

In the past you have drawn my attention to Bataille's discussion of 
transgression, which I think is relevant here. The question arises: is 
it possible for political science, with technological support, to manage 
the attraction of transgression? That seems to be the project that is 
underway in China at the moment. We can watch the results with interest 
(and perhaps trepidation).

 > What does an effective society operating in a highly ambiguous and 
technologically abundant environment look like?

My working suggestion for a guiding principle would be "An effective 
society should be humble about its ability to understand its own 
workings, and those of the people who constitute it"

Dai

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Professor David (Dai) Griffiths
Professor of Education
School of Education and Psychology
The University of Bolton
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