Algorithms & Love: Dancing with the Creative Tension of Our Time

"The data we can extract, the data we handily give up for the sake of short-term convenience or simply out of ignorance, is of monumental proportions. But we extract all this data to what end?" In a recent talk, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta paints a vivid picture of today's world -- a world where algorithms powered by big data undergird almost every field of human endeavor, and have brought us to the brink of unprecedented change. While the benefits are undeniable, they come at a cost, to our freedom, creativity and more. What are our options? Mehta outlines two alternatives, to go from big data to bigger data -- or to move instead towards deep data. "Big data is understood by silicon machines whereas deep data is processed by carbon-based life, humans. Big data is algorithmic, deep data is intuitive. Big data powers today's Internet, but it is deep data that has powered the web of our connection -- the innernet -- for millennia." Packed with sobering present-day examples, and stirring personal stories, this talk speaks to the possibilities that dance on the arc between algorithms -- and love.

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