Beware the Data Wolf!
Once upon a time, long, long ago there were three little data-pigs and the time came for them to leave home and seek their fortunes. Before they left, their mommy told them “ Whatever you do, make sure that your representation of reality works because that’s the way to get along in the world.
The first little data-pig built his representation of reality out of personal experience because it was the easiest thing to do. s/he was confident that his/her personal experience was the best possible representation of reality.
The second little data-pig built his representation of reality out of semantics, ontology and data science. This was a little bit stronger than an experience based representation of reality.
The third little data-pig built his representation of reality out of the very stuff of reality itself.
One night the big bad data wolf, who dearly loved to eat fat little data-piggies, came along and saw the first little data-pig in his personal representation of reality. He said “Let me in, let me in, little data-pig or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your representation of reality down!” “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin”, said the little data-pig. But of course, a mere personal representation of reality could not stand against the data wolf, who did blow the representation of reality down and ate the first little data-pig.
The data wolf then trotted on, wiping little bits of data-pig off his face until he came to the semantic-ontology-data science based representation of reality. “Let me in, let me in little data-pig or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your representation of reality down” “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin”, shouted the little data-pig because he had charts and visualisations galore, and these made him very brave. And the data wolf blew as hard as he could but he did not shake that representation of reality.
So the data wolf thought a little bit and first he blew soft and then he blew hard and then he blew fast and then he blew slow. And soon that little data pig was working so hard on normalising his data that his representation of reality began to crumble too, and so the data wolf ate the second little data-pig.
The wolf then came to the representation of reality of that was made of reality. “ Let me in, let me in” cried the wolf “Or I’ll huff and I’ll puff till I blow your representation of reality in” “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin” said the data-pig. Well, the wolf huffed and puffed in lots of different ways but that real representation of reality was unshaken.
But the data wolf was a sly old data wolf and he climbed up on the roof to look for a way into the real representation of reality.
The little data-pig saw the wolf climb up on the roof and lit a roaring energy fire in the fireplace and placed on it a large kettle of quanta.
When the wolf finally found the hole in the chimney he crawled down and KERSPLASH right into that kettle of quanta and that was the end of the data-pig’s troubles with the big bad wolf.
The next day the little data-pig invited his mother over . She said “You see it is just as I told you. The way to get along in the world is to make sure your representation of reality is real.” Fortunately for that little data-pig, he learned that lesson. And he just lived happily ever after!
