263-3010-00: Big Data
Section 1
Introduction
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Last Edit Date: 12/23/2024
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Scale¶
Humankind's understanding of the universe has evolved from observing the Sun, Moon, and planets to realizing the vastness of the cosmos, stretching from meters to Yottameters. This expansion mirrors the growth of data, from bytes to exabytes, in our digital age. Just as astrophysicists need to understand the universe on both large and small scales, data science requires modeling data at the tiniest levels to grasp massive datasets. Like physics, data science studies what the world actually is, making it more empirical than fields like mathematics and computer science.
A short history of databases¶
Prehistory of databases¶
Humans pass down knowledge from generation to generation by speaking, telling, and singing stories. However, this method is susceptible to distortions, loss of information, and the introduction of errors.
First revolution - Writing
The first revolution occurred thousands of years ago with the invention of writing, initially done on clay tablets. Once dried, these tablets could preserve information for thousands of years. This ability to encode and store information is why we have much more knowledge about human history after the advent of writing, allowing us to access well-preserved information from those earlier times.
Accounting