On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address during which he promoted the ideas of equality and freedom that deceased soldiers sacrificed their lives for. Time has passed since the famous speech, and, in some ways, humanity certainly followed Lincoln’s vision of a better tomorrow, yet there is room for improvement. The intersection of computer science and statistics, known as data science, is attempting to tackle the issues regarding human development. The combined efforts from various technological, political, social, and economic institutions provide the best chances for an improved future of humanity.
One of the key ideas of the Gettysburg Address was equality. In the last few years, America has been focused on fighting racial inequity, which has been a key issue for a prolonged period of time that unfortunately has not been addressed seriously until the current times. The conversations surrounding that topic may be uncomfortable, however are necessary to move forth, which exemplifies the complex nature of human development. Data Scientists’ focus on human development provides hope to truly make Lincoln’s ideas a reality one day.
Yet human development is rather complex process that Amartya Sen describes in his book “Development as Freedom” as the “process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy”. Hence, human development requires combined efforts of various institutions and study disciplines. Data science helps to identify the gaps in development and shares the findings with interlinked institutions that later can work to address the issue. For example, the College of William and Mary has previously been referred to as a predominantly white institution with a skewed racial distribution of students at the college. This finding came from students’ data that was processed. Once data scientists identified this pattern, the college became more engaged in identifying ways to increase diversity on campus. One of the introduced programs was Posse, which identified leaders from diverse backgrounds across the commonwealth of Virginia and offered a group of 11 students a scholarship to the College of William and Mary. Another example of the use of data science in the process of human development is Amazon’s Web Services Talent Acquisition Program. Ardine Williams, a member of the Board of Visitors at William and Mary, is the vice president of the program, which identifies talented workers of tomorrow amongst high school and college dropouts. The program is geared towards helping these individuals get the necessary skills and expertise for high paying jobs in the future. Increased income can provide various freedoms that these individuals may not have experienced before, which at core is the idea behind human development.
Though some may argue, America does indeed provide people with more opportunities and a better life than some realize. Lincoln’s democratic ideas have come to fruition and have continued to serve as the foundation of this country throughout history. Democracy continues to be a daily part of the lives of Americans whether that’s through voting, expression of thought, and various kinds of equality, which are freedoms that people of many other countries do not have. Kazakhstan is a prime example of what Owen Barder referred to as isomorphic mimicry. The country has all the necessary systems in place to make it a democracy, yet the country operated under an authoritarian regime. Freedom of thought and assembly are highly suppressed and leave the country under the name of a developing country. The sorrowful reality of many geographical regions in today’s world leaves space for hope.
The outlook on future human development should be positive because public data worldwide has become more accessible than ever, technology used for data science has improved immensely, and finally scientists, researchers, and various institutions are now more than ever involved in trying to understand human development.