In āAlchemy, the Philosopher's Stone and the Ten Capital Sins of businessesā I describe the ten capital sins of businesses when it comes to collecting and using data. The second capital sin is collecting irrelevant or excessive data. Star Trek fans may remember the first Star Trek full-motion picture (1979). In it, the Enterprise needs to face the threat of an alien entity that is later discovered to be the Voyager VI space probe (Vāger) sent from Earth hundreds of years earlier. It had amassed so much knowledge, following the 20th-century mantra, "
The idea that more data can lead to intelligence is a slippery slope, because, to humans, more data feels like intelligence.
Itās not. It is simply pattern recognition and more patterns means more associations, more recognitions, and perhaps, more insights.
But, the idea that intelligence derives from data is a seductive trap.
Dogs are intelligent while People are conscious. People think about thinking.
But, if intelligence gave rise to human consciousness, couldnāt we simply add more dog-like attributes to a dog and somehow arrive at a human?
Similarly, could a human through acquiring more data, through works, through knowledge, through study, acquire the attributes of a God?
This is the seductive trap that we are in warned of in Genesis
āLean not upon your own understandingā.