ABSTRACT
The digital revolution is producing profound changes in the world's cultures. What is unique about these many changes is that they are embraced by many people ranging from scientists, business women and men, educators, and just about everybody else who values convenience, instantaneousness, multiple forms of empowerment, and the ability to escape from face-to-face relationships into the seemingly boundless world of data. This chapter discusses why wisdom is needed in a world that increasingly relies on data-based decision making, as well as how data misrepresents the world we live in. It describes that for all its limitations data is useful in providing a better understanding of patterns, trend lines, causal relationships, rates of change, and changes in effectiveness and efficiency. The chapter provides, in many instances, a more accurate account of the behavior of social and natural systems that might otherwise be misrepresented by a lack of close attention, and by efforts to hide the shortcomings in human behavior.
