ABSTRACT
‘Data’ often refers to a thing that is taken into account or that serves as the basis for a finding or decision. Data is: inputting, processing, organization, abstraction, units, aggregation, and resource. Data is a ‘known’. It is assumed as known and used to express or ‘discover’ an unknown. This is what mathematicians do: they solve problems by expressing unknowns in terms of known. Expressing the unknown in terms of the known is also what computer programmers do. They’re given problems and write executable computer programs to help solve these problems. Entities that act on data require memory to function. They must be able to save data in a memory, a database, an archive, a library, or a file. Memory is distinct from a data dump. Data is always an abstraction. It is a symbolic notation that signifies an object or a subject. Data is generated according to rules for categorizing, archiving, retrieving, and treating inputs and outputs.
