eriksrx

To see OP's reply to this question, click here or scroll down.

Hey /u/phonetriffid, not the OP (and I want to point out that I work with Western Digital, who suggested Jeff do this AMA) but I want to point something out.

There have been a lot of abuses of big data, lord knows you hear about more every day, but there are many positive ones brewing, too. UCSF for example is working to build a database of breast cancer screenings in order to use data to develop a way to improve screening technology.. This field currently has its hands tied by government regulations regarding privacy such as HIPAA -- which in my opinion is a totally good and necessary thing, just in this case it is slowing down legitimate/positive progress.

We've written about other positive uses of big data at our site, Data Makes Possible. There are no marketing messages or company fluff on that site -- it's just articles, many of them written by WIRED Insider or data scientists like Kirk Borne.

I think every advancement or change comes with both positive uses and abuses. The world is struggling to come to grips with tech like big data and AI so we're going through that painful learning phase now. But I for one am optimistic we'll come out ahead somewhere down the line.

Edit: Fixed Kirk's surname

OP is a data analyst, not a level-four black-belt Reddit expert like you and I.

OP is named /u/Titors_Time_Machine. He's been on the Internets a long, long time. So of course he uses Fark.

Were you ever a user of classic BBS systems? What was your favorite door game or experience?

Are the people who are trolling/misogynist/etc. actually complete assholes? Like, does their IRL persona reflect their online beliefs at all? I look at something like 4Chan where everyone is constantly making comments about Jews, Hitler being right, etc. and find it hard to believe these people are all like that.

It seems more plausible that they are all sharing some big stupid joke under the cover of fascism/sexism/etc and just want to see how far it can go regardless of consequences.