Yet, in the era of big data, our
notion of justice needs to be redefined to preserve the idea of human agency: the
free will by which people choose their actions. It is the simple idea that
individuals can and should be held responsible for their behavior, not their
propensities. (查看原文)
There is an essential role for people, with all our foibles, misperceptions and mistakes, since these traits walk hand in hand with human creativity, instinct, and genius. (查看原文)
The more we switch from holding people accountable for their acts to relying on data-driven interventions to reduce risk in society, the more we devalue the ideal of individual responsibility. The predictive state is the nanny state, and then some. Denying people’s responsibility for their actions destroys their fundamental freedom to choose their behavior.
If the state bases many decisions on predictions and a desire to mitigate risk, our individual choices—and thus our individual freedom to act—no longer matter. Without guilt, there can be no innocence. Giving in to such an approach
would not improve our society but impoverish it. (查看原文)
There is an essential role for people, with all our foibles, misperceptions and mistakes, since these traits walk hand in hand with human creativity, instinct, and genius. (查看原文)
We may accept this provided that in return we get a more complete sense of reality—the equivalent of an impressionist painting, wherein each stroke is messy when examined up close, but by stepping back one can see a majestic picture. (查看原文)
Rather, when we say that humans see the world through causalities, we’re referring to two fundamental ways humans explain and understand the world: through quick, illusory causality; and via slow, methodical causal experiments. Big data will transform the roles of both. (查看原文)
This new cadre will rely on correlations without prejudgments and prejudice, just as Maury didn’t take at face value what wizened skippers had to say about a certain passage over a pint at the pub, but trusted the aggregated data to reveal practical truths. (查看原文)
If we just step in and intervene to stop the illicit act from taking place, the putative perpetrator may try again with impunity. In contrast, by using big data to hold him responsible for his (future) acts, we may deter him and others. (查看原文)
That’s the idea behind “profiling” in today’s small-data world. Find a common association in the data, define a group of people to whom it applies, and then place those people under additional scrutiny. (查看原文)
To accuse a person of some possible future behavior is to negate the very foundation of justice: that one must have done something before we can hold him accountable for it. (查看原文)
Perhaps with such a system society would be safer or more efficient, but an essential part of what makes us human—our ability to choose the actions we take and be held accountable for them—would be destroyed. (查看原文)
They’d be prisoners of a prediction, but more important, they’d be victims of a view of data that lacks an appreciation for what the information actually means. (查看原文)
