What do you want to do when you grow up? In generations past, it was common for kids to say astronaut, explorer. Society used to be enamoured by shuttle launches and captivated by exploring the world and universe. In recent years this has changed though. The explorers of National Geographic and astronaut of NASA hold a very small share of the collective mind space today. Our focus has shifted from exploring what's beyond our daily lives to exploring what's within. To be crude, society pays more attention to American Idol than shuttle launches and new Apple product launches than the discovery of new species; we are obsessed with the things that connect us.

People talk about what they found on Facebook more than they talk about what was recently found on Mars. We have become intensely aware of social exploration rather than physical exploration. Realignment of interests hinges on a few factors. We've been exploring space for a while now, it isn't an adventure anymore it's a refined process and we feel like there's little new to discover about our planet. But I think there's a stronger current pushing this trend. A new awareness of our interconnected world.

This new level of awareness is called data. I've written before about data visualization, how often it is the discovery of art in mundane facts and figures, but the data being thrown at us from our collective use of Facebook to our predictable book choices on Amazon is relatively new.

When I was in college studying psychology all data came from studies and surveys. Research that was limited by sample size and resources. Now, however, we have endless supplies of data, streaming at us from every direction in every form. And, more importantly, we have the computing power to make it meaningful. Digital media is the heart and brain of big data.

A recent special report in The Economist  makes the point that theory and understanding is overrated while the real strategic power lies in statistical analysis. The value lies in discovering trends and making them meaningful.

A data centric approach is permeating business strategies and psychological understanding. Hunch, A website which touts itself as the ultimate recommendation machine recently launched an application called the Twitter Predictor Game, "Hunch has a Ph.D. in insight about people. In fact, Hunch thinks it can make all sorts of astounding predictions about you."

Hunch uses big data to make predictions about you. It's freakishly accurate. It reinforces the notion that one's history is the greatest predictor of one's future and if we have the machines to capture this data and analyze we can create more accurate pictures of the future.

Google is the best (i.e. most profitable) at this game. It uses big data to drive everything it does. Even the tone of blue in its design is determined by millions of users. IBM is busy launching its Smarter Planet campaign which offers business data analysis services. Governments are pushing data out of every portal possible.

If we maintain the same attitudes as the explorers who braved the great wilderness to snap one illusive photo or the astronaut who risk it all for a sample of dirt to our modern mysterious, the nuggets hidden in the streams of information, we will discover things which help us make better decisions and create a more efficient, effective, and holistic society.