The Omnipotent Evolution of Device and Data

The evolution of the cerebral cortex in the human brain has given us the ability to hope, to understand the lifecycle from creation to termination and to anticipate future events. Consequently, we invent devices and record data to serve this higher purpose. In order to achieve this successfully, sometimes data is the inspiration for creating a better device (data-first approach) but sometimes the exact opposite is true (device-first approach). In other words, data is the blueprint for creating a new device, or a new device is developed to seek and record data. Nevertheless, it is in our innate instinctual quest to try and predict the future and direct the world around us by pioneering devices to record and make sense of data. Regardless of which comes first, both should serve the higher purpose of assisting humanity in achieving optimal ethical standards. As Michael Dertouzos - a great computer science professor who foresaw the total domination of the internet in modern society - once said: “We made a big mistake 300 years ago when we separated technology and humanism. It's time to put the two back together”. In the device-first attempt, the ancient Mesopotamian civilisation invented ‘cuneiform’, wedge-shaped symbols, as a form of primitive language to record data on clay tablets -much like an archaic Excel spreadsheet. It led to the invention of the first-ever bookkeeping system, to control trade and predict livestock and grain production. This was achieved by linking the latest weather observations and predicting future grain production through correlation with historical data. A few centuries later in another device-first attempt, the ancient Greeks made use of Pythia (the Oracle of Delphi) as a human device, and her assumed unexplainable powers to predict the future by vocalising inconsistent coded messages, while under the influence of hallucinogenic substances. It was then in the hands of her priests, to decipher and analyse her messages into meaningful conjectures. Leaders, aristocrats and soldiers from all over the world would express their predicaments and desires to her on a daily basis. This would lead to the collection of vast amounts of data, which allowed for faultless predictions and cross-referencing. Many forms of devices have been invented and used throughout time in our quest for answers to questions, serving the innate ambition driven by our natural inclination. In a data-first approach, the first ever analogue computer known today as the Greek Antikythera Mechanism, was made using bronze gear wheels to precisely track and predict the cycles of the cosmos. In a similar fashion, Stonehenge was used by our ancestors to keep track of the position of the sun and the cycles of eclipses. Two completely separate civilisations, that both depicted a need to predict and understand the future. Both devices were created based on decades worth of astrological data. Interestingly enough, our world and its phenomena adhere to arithmetical sequences such as the Golden Ration of the Fibonacci Sequence and the Archimedean Spiral. Depending on spiritual beliefs, one could argue that the Creator is the device in this particular scenario. Numbers that we have invented some billion years later, prove the interconnectivity of everything in our known world. For example, the sunflower, the pineapple and the pinecone all share similar numerical blueprints from within the same Golden Ratio. Inventing the device-first, modern computer has marked the turning point of the digital age. Conceptually, this machine can emulate diverse devices required to support an unlimited number of data-first approach implementations. While it took the best of 4,500 years from the creation of the Cuneiform Tablets to the creation of the computer, it only took 45 years for the development of Artificial Intelligence, which is a breakthrough in implementing data-first concepts through the use of data training. Essentially new data, is created from existing data, applying fundamental methodologies of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics. Information has truly never been more powerful than it is now, especially with the pioneering of devices like the quantum computer. As we transcend into a new realm of extraordinary efficiency and acceleration in invention, we should not fear progression, but instead embrace it to achieve our fundamental quest -combining humanism and technology once and for all.