Dataism is the new religion and the fourth religious epoch according to Yuval Noah Harari in his latest book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The first being animism and symbolic nature beliefs, followed by God as the centre of all things. The third epoch, humanism, posits humans as the centre and is currently being replaced by Dataism.

Is dataism the new scientific unifying theory? Driven by data, everything is but a connected and networked algorithm. This total internet of things includes weather, human behaviour, decision making, machines, animals, healthcare, buildings, food, politics – everything. Humanism believes truth is revealed going inside oneself to discover an authentic self. Individualism being highly regarded and valued.

Human logic, emotions, and intuition are being replaced by decisions made from big data applications able to process enormous amount of data. Facebook knows you better than you know yourself.  Wearables and the quantifiable-self monitor you to guide towards better health. Dating apps introduce you to your future spouse.

Mr. Harari explains how data-driven applications are being developed to control our thoughts and desires allowing algorithms to guide us in making more sensible decisions. In contrast, he uses Romeo and Juliet as an example. If only they had such a device and were able to control and shift their passion towards more acceptable marriages, they might have lived long and happy lives.

He warns about the gap between fast moving technology and slow moving governments struggling to keep up, but suggests dataism may be positive and like the neo-liberal belief in market-driven economics, self-regulate to deliver what humankind needs most – not necessarily what it wants most. A fair outcome will be dependent on data being accessible, uncensored, equally distributed and free for all.

This shift questions the value of consciousness. Is the individual still important when unconscious machines rule our lives?  What will we lose? Will machines obtain consciousness through artificial intelligence and lead us towards a better life? Do only the rich control the machines? What happens to our thoughts, feelings, intuition and individualism when we become biologically blended with machines?

Dataism and Digital Transformation

Data is playing an increasingly important role in business and digital transformation. Most organisations are struggling to understand technology and processes needed to harness the power of data. New CRM programmes and automated marketing applications are utilising data to help identify and respond to shopping propensities, most valuable customers, potential next sale, audience sentiment, customer churn and competitor threats.

Some are getting it right. Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia describes his self-managed organisation pushing the boundaries of data science, optimisation and artificial intelligence to solve the most difficult problems in industry including efficient vehicle and network routing and workforce organisation.

Insurance companies and health providers are offering wearables and apps to monitor health as an added-value service. The music and property industries are exploring blockchain technology as a way to better manage assets and intellectual property. Social media data is being harnessed to win political campaigns, improve human rights, manage disease and be successful in the stock market.

Forbes magazine predicts that B2B internet-of-things (IoT) technologies will reach $267B by 2020 with 50% of spend driven by discrete manufacturing, transportation, logistics and utilities. Predictive maintenance, self-optimised production and automatic inventory management are the top three drivers for IoT growth.

According to Zion Marketing Research, the global smart home market is likely to grow by 14.5 percent between 2017 and 2022, reaching $53.45 billion.

Are human values at risk? According to Mr. Harari, meaning in the world of dataism is derived from creating, uploading and sharing data. He muses whether augmented reality, biomedicine and dataism will create whole new ways of thinking and feeling that are unimaginable and even more valuable.

No one can definitively predict the future, but it is clear that data plays an increasingly important role in our everyday and business lives. New models, platforms and applications are being explored to help users better control and manage their personal data, possibly, even gain value and rewards. As governments and authorities catch up, the ethics surrounding data remain ambiguous.