Humans, Data and Emergent Factors

In this article, I use the following terms to describe a behavioral response:

• Autogrid: A general response or behavior of convenience
• Mechanization: A state of behavior unable to respond to emergent context, an unresolved repetition

The creation process in humans, reactive to context, is best described as emergence. In art, the invisible effect of emergence is not noticed till we review it in retrospect. We begin to see the theme of each work and how each piece relates to the other.

Data is like a phoneme, as an individual intangible unit it has no meaning. In relation to a system and structure, we begin to see all the structural roots of our dimensions of reality and its processes. Our relationship to data seems mostly post-phenomenological, but it offers us all the possibilities to break through by the study of emergence on the structures of data encapsulating systems.

Data operates under the influence of emergence to provide an understanding of context influenced by complexities of feedback and inputs within systems. Human existence and humans are both collaborators and participants of a system.

Humans themselves are physical and social systems living in a natural system, part of a complex system. In all systems, interactions occur that produce objects, information, and reactions that also become inputs into the system, leading to greater complexity and differentiation.

Emergence doesn’t just occur in biological systems, it is observed in all other systems. I reason emergence is simply the visible process of observing creation taking fold. With that in mind, then quantification is capturing a process in slow time as we mull through the data.

AutoGrid is an automated pattern; the assumption of mechanization is that humans are predictable, where their capacity for expansive growth by contextual dynamics is slowly dampened by convenience and patterns of habituation. Making them unable to break through a loop of habituation with fixed habits and predictability akin to mechanization.

Mechanization is the loss of the ability to react to a new context authentically in order to acquire a new state of growth and new functions of operations, learning, and synthesis of the tangible and intangible.

Unlike our machine friends, our biological system has been designed to accommodate the flux of context. A 3-pound brain wrapped in layers has in it enough complexities to support expansion and contextual environments.

There seems to be a fixation on data as an object that is static when the properties it takes are more dependent on humans, society and events that influence the variety of data produced than we may realize.

Human life is more than algorithms. The elements of human events such as history, culture, technologies, commerce, and market forces all shape and define data objects for the value it continuously acquires.

For instance, the Meiji Restoration in 1868 under Emperor Meiji led to enormous social and political restructuring that propelled Japan to modernity. This was a period in history that witnessed the samurai tradition giving way, their titles as samurai were traded in to become teachers, government officials, or military officers. There were clear reformations to industrialize Japan which resulted in shipyards, iron smelters, and spinning mills which were sold to entrepreneurs.

The development of the national railway system and modern communications subsequently led to large migration from the countryside to industrial centers. From these human activities, we can conclude Japan’s new chapter had opened new doors in terms of GDP revenues, international commerce, and the country. All of this is an example of the behavioral aspect of data being contextually affected by interactive human affairs.

In the late 1930s, the introduction of the electronic amplifier paved the way for the electronic guitar industry to flourish, perpetuated by market, culture, and human participants in a system. Louder guitars in the 1930s and 1940s allowed artists like T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Eddie Durham, Noel Boggs, and Merle Travis to pioneer, and experiment with new ways of guitar tonal, harmonic, and playing possibilities.

There are numerous ways to examine how a music culture scene fed by its momentum feedback resulted in a plethora of music genres, a record music industry and more advancement in music technology emerged.

Bob Dylan's opposition against someone from the crowd calling him Judas after he had gone electric from a perceived betrayal of his folk roots could have historically unfolded differently to change the course of the future and technology. Instead of an apology to his loyal fan base, he obstinately ignored the accusation and told his band to “play it f-ing loud” and roared into “Like a Rolling Stone”.

This particular snapshot of a period in history propelled the demand in the market for more innovations in the music industry segment and a germinating rich cultural movement owing to Dylan's already established influence as an artist in the music industry in the early days. In 1969, the internet was born and the world exploded.

MP3 technology was made possible by the advancement in improved audio compression format of data reduction that helped this format transfer music through the internet. Internet distribution eventually emerged from these interactions of people and technology that resulted in demands for new software for the dissemination and exchange of music.

Consequently, it forced the music industry to review its business model as it somewhat shattered and remolded the industry. As the MP3 phenomenon came to a sink, Steve Jobs decided that it was an opening for new possibilities. Itunes and iPod emerged with the promise of “1000 songs in your pocket” which provoked shifts in the industry and commerce.

The birth of the synthesizer, the sounds that the instrument produces that even today are still associated with the unknown future, was made possible by the invention of the transistor. This little component with the reaching effects of technological and social advancement was invented in 1947 by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley.

The transistor paved the way for radios, computers, and calculators. I have doubts if data on its own can predict when events that are attributed to a collective or individuals which have a huge influence on the future can ever be reduced to just a statistical registry in a system.

There is a tendency to view data as a fixed property that exists in a vacuum, which can lead to the confirmation bias that data has become the invisible ink that encapsulates materials of things and the collective consciousness as a type of permanent effect.

It’s important to establish that data is reliant on human affairs if it is to be used to gain value, and is subject to the flux of emergence in context from events in a particular period.

References

• Editors, History.com. “Dylan Goes Electric at the Newport Folk Festival - History.” Dylan Goes Electric at the Newport Folk Festival, 27 Nov. 2009,
• May 18th, 1966: ‘Play It Fucking Loud.’ Dylan Heckled by Fans in Manchester: Watch.” Gaslight Records, gaslightrecords.com/news/watch-play-it-fucking-loud-dylan-heckled-by-fans-in-manchester
• The Transistor – an Invention Ahead of Its Time.” Ericsson.com, 29 Aug. 2016,

Also published here.