Heidegger Against the Technocrats (Big Data Part 2)

On The Very Idea - A Philosophy Podcast

In this final episode of a two part series, I look at the work of Martin Heidegger to see how it can provide insights into a critical examination of the techno optimism behind the big data movement and the TED Talk crowd. Can big data craft better social policy by relying on a computational models to determine the best social policy? According to Heidegger, any model based on quantification will miss the ineffable, non-conceptual and purely qualitative aspects of the lived world which is, after all, the world that we inhabit as citizens and people. Plus the obligatory trivia and my endless struggle with pronouncing the word ‘data’ the same way twice.