Alchemy is not the same as gathering big datasets and developing pattern-recognising algorithms. For one thing, alchemy is impossible, and deriving insights from big data is not. Yet the parallels should also be obvious. The likes of Google and Target are no more keen to share their datasets and algorithms than Newton was to share his alchemical experiments. Sometimes there are legal or ethical reasons – if you’re trying to keep your pregnancy a secret, you don’t want Target publicly disclosing your folic acid purchases – but most obviously the reasons are commercial. There’s gold in the data
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