We already know how much of our data is collected and used to profile and target us. The real question is why, knowing all this, do we keep going back for more?'Great book' – Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works'Essential reading' – Pete Etchells, author of Unlocked'An urgent must-read' – Tiffany Jenkins, author and broadcaster, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ...

What is Big Data, and why should you care?Big data knows where you've been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you'll buy, where you'll be the victim of crime and when you'll have a heart attack. Big data knows you better than you know yourself, or so it claims.But how well do you know big data?You've probably seen the phrase in newspaper headlines, at work in a marketing meeting, or on a fi...

We already know how much of our data is collected and used to profile and target us. The real question is why, knowing all this, do we keep going back for more?'Great book' – Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works'Essential reading' – Pete Etchells, author of Unlocked'An urgent must-read' – Tiffany Jenkins, author and broadcaster, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ...

Bloomsbury presents Big Data: Does Size Matter?, written and read by Timandra HarknessWhat is Big Data, and why should you care?Big data knows where you've been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you'll buy, where you'll be the victim of crime and when you'll have a heart attack. Big data knows you better than you know yourself, or so it claims.But how well do you know big data?

We seem to have forgotten how to argue about important things without descending into tribalism, insults, and generally thinking the worst of our opponents. This is no good. We'll never get out of the bitter divisions cleaving society if we don't learn to disagree fruitfully.In this series, Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.She examines how clashes of interests, competing moral visions, factual disputes, arguments about ...

A revelatory exploration of the hottest trend in technology and the dramatic impact it will have on the economy, science, and society at large.Which paint color is most likely to tell you that a used car is in good shape? How can officials identify the most dangerous New York City manholes before they explode? And how did Google searches predict the spread of the H1N1 flu outbreak?The key to answering these questions, and many more, is big data. “Big data” refers to our bur...

The very best journalism from one of Britain’s most admired and outspoken science writers, author of the bestselling Bad Science and Bad Pharma.In Bad Science, Ben Goldacre hilariously exposed the tricks that quacks and journalists use to distort science. In Bad Pharma, he put the $600 billion global pharmaceutical industry under the microscope. Now the pick of the journalism by one of our wittiiest, most indignant and most fearl...

"If anyone knows anything about the web, where it's been and where it's going, it's David Weinberger. . . . Too Big To Know is an optimistic, if not somewhat cautionary tale, of the information explosion." -- Steven Rosenbaum, ForbesWith the advent of the Internet and the limitless information it contains, we're less sure about what we know, who knows what, or even what it means to know at all. And yet, human knowledge has recently grown in previo...

In ‘Eyes Wide Open’ Noreena Hertz does for decision-making what Daniel Kahneman did for thinking.Why should you be wary of experts?Are emails destroying your ability to think?How do you know which sources of information are credible?Whose advice should you trust?‘Eyes Wide Open’ will help you through the data deluge and show you how to make better and smarter decisions.By weaving together cutting-edge research with real-wor...

An irreverent, provocative, and visually fascinating look at what our online lives reveal about who we really are – and how this deluge of data will transform the science of human behaviour.Big Data is used to spy on us, hire and fire us, and sell us things we don't need. In ‘Dataclysm’, Christian Rudder, founder of one of the world’s biggest dating websites OkCupid, puts this flood of information to an entirely different use: understanding human nature.Drawing on terabytes...

Based on the series produced for the BBC World ServiceWho thought up paper money? How did the contraceptive pill change the face of the legal profession? Why was the horse collar as important for human progress as the steam engine? How did the humble spreadsheet turn the world of finance upside-down?The world economy defies comprehension. A continuously-changing system of immense complexity, it offers over ten billion distinct products and services, doubles...

Mark Stevenson set out on a global journey to find the future - a few years before it impacts on the rest of us. The results are frankly encouraging. He finds he is very likely to live longer than he had expected with a few biological tweaks. Perhaps even long enough to share the planet with a resurrected sabre-tooth tiger or dodo or at least a super-intelligent computer able to understand and determine to act upon his commands. He feels good about the planet too. The energy crisis can be ...