Data Science and Prediction

Abstract

The world's data is growing more than 40% annually. Coupled with exponentially growing computing horsepower, this provides us with unprecedented basis for 'learning' useful things from the data through statistical induction without material human intervention and acting on them. Philosophers have long debated the merits and demerits of induction as a scientific method, the latter being that conclusions are not guaranteed to be certain and that multiple and numerous models can be conjured to explain the observed data. I propose that 'big data' brings a new and important perspective to these problems in that it greatly ameliorates historical concerns about induction, especially if our primary objective is prediction as opposed to causal model identification. Equally significantly, it propels us into an era of automated decision making, where computers will make the bulk of decisions because it is infeasible or more costly for humans to do so. In this paper, I describe how scale, integration and most importantly, prediction will be distinguishing hallmarks in this coming era of Data Science.' In this brief monograph, I define this newly emerging field from business and research perspectives.