Minds, Computers and Data

Prof. Dr. Petros Koumoutsakos, ETH Zurich

Computing, the study of information processing, is a domain of knowledge and one of the most potent instruments for advancing science and engineering. Fuelled by the advents of exascale computers and big data, this field currently shows unprecedented potential for discovery. Today we also hear that a computing tool, machine learning, may soon make humans obsolete in several professions and other endeavours.

In this talk, I wish to take a critical stand on these premises.  I will discuss the power and limitation of computing in understanding and prediction. I will also argue that computers and big data require the allocation of important societal resources such as energy and human capital and, even more, endanger the personality, liberty and property of its members: Will corporations use big data to control our shopping habits, or will social networks shape our political beliefs without us realising it? This talk makes the thesis that computing can assist humankind in ways that many of us can’t even imagine, but cannot (yet?) replace our thinking and imagination.