Big Data

　　汽車烤漆的顏色能告訴你，這輛二手車的故障率高低嗎？
　　市政府要怎樣清查，才能迅速找出有致命危險的人孔蓋？
　　從谷歌的搜尋字眼，怎麼預測流感疫情的蔓延？

　　要回答這些問題，關鍵就在於巨量資料（俗稱大數據）。

　　「巨量資料分析」是一門新興科技，能夠解讀和預測無數的現象，包括預測機票的價格、好萊塢新片的票房、你家裡的青少年是否未婚懷孕！也能協助診斷早產兒的健康情況，探查收入高低與幸福快樂的相關程度，幫忙規劃快遞的送貨路線、電動車的充電站應該設置在哪裡，還能用來發展自動導航的無人駕駛汽車、以及「從駕駛人的臀部形態判斷是否為車主」的防盜系統，也能夠快速進行多種語文的互譯……

　　兩位最頂尖的大數據專家，真正掌握到巨量資料思維的精髓，在這本書裡，清晰曉暢的解釋了巨量資料是什麼，它將如何改變我們的生活，對經濟、社會和科學會帶來什麼影響，我們又能夠做些什麼，趕搭上這波新潮流，同時也懂得保護自己，避免個人資料和隱私受到侵害。

　　★本書中譯版《大數據》由天下文化出版。

　　A New York Times bestseller. Longlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

　　Since Aristotle, we have fought to understand the causes behind everything. But this ideology is fading. In the age of big data, we can crunch an incomprehensible amount of information, providing us with invaluable insights about the what rather than the why.

　　We're just starting to reap the benefits: tracking vital signs to foresee deadly infections, predicting building fires, anticipating the best moment to buy a plane ticket, seeing inflation in real time and monitoring social media in order to identify trends. But there is a dark side to big data. Will it be machines, rather than people, that make the decisions? How do you regulate an algorithm? What will happen to privacy? Will individuals be punished for acts they have yet to commit?

　　In this groundbreaking and fascinating book, two of the world's most-respected data experts reveal the reality of a big data world and outline clear and actionable steps that will equip the reader with the tools needed for this next phase of human evolution.

 

作者簡介

麥爾荀伯格 Viktor Mayer-Schonberger

　　牛津大學網路研究所教授，並擔任微軟、世界經濟論壇等大公司和組織的顧問，是大數據（巨量資料）領域公認的權威，寫過八本書以及上百篇專論。

　　Viktor Mayer-Sch?nberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University following a decade on the faculty of Harvard`s Kennedy School. He is one of the most respected authorities on what is happening in the big data arena. His book, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, is considered a seminal work on the ever-presence of data.

庫基耶 Kenneth Cukier

　　《經濟學人》雜誌資料編輯，巨量資料思潮評論員，經常於《紐約時報》、《金融時報》、以及《外交事務》期刊發表財經文章。

　　Kenneth Cukier is the Data Editor of The Economist and a leading thinker on developments in big data. His writing on technology, business and society has appeared in Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and elsewhere. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.