Plato’s Data
Jim Harris in Data Quality tagged Best of 2011, Master Data Management, Philosophy Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 9:00AM Plato’s Cave is a famous allegory from philosophy that describes a fictional scenario where people mistake an illusion for reality.
The allegory describes a group of people who have lived their whole lives as prisoners chained motionless in a dark cave, forced to face a blank wall. Behind the prisoners is a large fire. In front of the fire are puppeteers that project shadows onto the cave wall, acting out little plays, which include mimicking voices and sound effects that echo off the cave walls. These shadows and echoes are only projections, partial reflections of a reality created by the puppeteers. However, this illusion represents the only reality the prisoners have ever known, and so to them the shadows are real sights and the echoes are real sounds.
When one of the prisoners is freed and permitted to turn around and see the source of the shadows and echoes, he rejects reality as an illusion. The prisoner is then dragged out of the cave into the sunlight, out into the bright, painful light of the real world, which he also rejects as an illusion. How could these sights and sounds be real to him when all he has ever known is the cave?
But eventually the prisoner acclimates to the real world, realizing that the real illusion was the shadows and echoes in the cave.
Unfortunately, this is when he’s returned to his imprisonment in the cave. Can you imagine how painful the rest of his life will be, once again being forced to watch the shadows and listen to the echoes — except now he knows that they are not real.
Plato’s Cinema
A modern update on the allegory is something we could call Plato’s Cinema, where a group of people live their whole lives as prisoners chained motionless in a dark cinema, forced to face a blank screen. Behind the audience is a large movie projector.
Please stop reading for a moment and try to imagine if everything you ever knew was based entirely on the movies you watched.
Now imagine you are one of the prisoners, and you did not get to choose the movies, but instead were forced to watch whatever the projectionist chooses to show you. Although the fictional characters and stories of these movies are only projections, partial reflections of a reality created by the movie producers, since this illusion would represent the only reality you have ever known, to you the characters would be real people and the stories would be real events.
If you were freed from this cinema prison, permitted to turn around and see the projector, wouldn’t you reject it as an illusion? If you were dragged out of the cinema into the sunlight, out into the bright, painful light of the real world, wouldn’t you also reject reality as an illusion? How could these sights and sounds be real to you when all you have ever known is the cinema?
Let’s say that you eventually acclimated to the real world, realizing that the real illusion was the projections on the movie screen.
However, now let’s imagine that you are then returned to your imprisonment in the dark cinema. Can you imagine how painful the rest of your life would be, once again being forced to watch the movies — except now you know that they are not real.
Plato’s Data
Whether it’s an abstract description of real-world entities (i.e., “master data”) or an abstract description of real-world interactions (i.e., “transaction data”) among entities, data is an abstract description of reality — let’s call this the allegory of Plato’s Data.
We often act as if we are being forced to face our computer screen, upon which data tells us a story about the real world that is just as enticing as the flickering shadows on the wall of Plato’s Cave, or the mesmerizing movies projected in Plato’s Cinema.
Data shapes our perception of the real world, but sometimes we forget that data is only a partial reflection of reality.
I am sure that it sounds silly to point out something so obvious, but imagine if, before you were freed, the other prisoners, in either the cave or the cinema, tried to convince you that the shadows or the movies weren’t real. Or imagine you’re the prisoner returning to either the cave or the cinema. How would you convince other prisoners that you’ve seen the true nature of reality?
A common question about Plato’s Cave is whether it’s crueler to show the prisoner the real world, or to return the prisoner to the cave after he has seen it. Much like the illusions of the cave and the cinema, data makes more sense the more we believe it is real.
However, with data, neither breaking the illusion nor returning ourselves to it is cruel, but is instead a necessary practice because it’s important to occasionally remind ourselves that data and the real world are not the same thing.
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Reader Comments (9)
I have started a data quality blog from the same genus - a work not yet in progess, but barely begun:
Plato’s Wall (We see the shadows – what do they mean?) - A Data Quality blog by Dave Silberstein
Lovely post Jim.
Brings up all sorts of philosophical issues. My favourite from a past project was when the development team at a Health Authority in BC started doing data profiling of subject areas before they could be ETL'd into the data warehouse, and began to talk about the "difference between accurate and valid".
Valid of course meant that the value "M" in the column of record 12345 matched the domain of valid values ("M","F","U"), but there was something suspicious about a male being admitted to the maternity ward, i.e. the data was not an accurate "reflection of reality".
Via Information Management, Peter Perera commented:
“erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.”
To all Harry Potter fans this translates to: “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.”
It refers to The Mirror of Erised. It does not reflect reality but what you desire. (Erised is Desired spelled backwards.)
Often data will cast a reflection of what people want to see.
“Dumbledore cautions Harry that the mirror gives neither knowledge nor truth and that men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they see.”
How many systems are really Mirrors of Erised?
Wonderful questions to ask, Jim.
It is true that data is only a reflection of reality but that is also true of anything that we perceive with our senses. When the prisoners in the cave turn around, what they perceive with their eyes in the visible spectrum is only a very narrow slice of what is actually there. Even the "solid" objects they see, and can indeed touch, are actually composed of 99% empty space.
The questions that need to be asked and answered about the essence of data quality are far less esoteric than many would have us believe. They can be very simple, without being simplistic. Indeed simplicity can be seen as a cornerstone of true data quality. If you cannot identify the underlying simplicity that lies at the heart of data quality you can never achieve it.
Simple questions are the most powerful. Questions like, "In our world (i.e., the enterprise in question) what is it that we need to know about (for example) a Sale that will enable us to operate successfully and meet all of our goals and objectives?" If the enterprise cannot answer such simple questions then it is in trouble. Making the questions more complicated will not take the enterprise any closer to where it needs to be. Rather it will completely obscure the goal.
Data quality is rather like a "magic" trick done by a magician. Until you know how it is done it appears to an unfathomable mystery. Once you find out that is merely an illusion, the reality is absolutely simple and, in fact, rather mundane.
But perhaps that is why so many practitioners perpetuate the illusion. It is not for self gain. They just don’t want to tell the world that, when it comes to data quality, there is no Tooth Fairy, no Easter Bunny, or no Santa Claus.
It’s sad but true. Data quality is boringly simple!
Regards,
John
Very interesting discussion !!!
I personally prefer to keep a scientific point of view for any "Perception". Data (like "vision", or "touch", or any other "sense") is just a "perception" of reality.
A contact/customer record in a database table (even with a nice BLOB picture) can barely reflect the complexity of a business relation, and will never reflect what this person really is.
Having said that, as long as...
(1) I acknowledge that what 'I see in the world' is not necessarily what 'is in the world', but only 'my perception of the world'
and
(2) I try to assess and take into account in my decisions the accuracy of the senses I am using for perceiving the world
...then I think I am fine.
In short, no data should be trusted without a clear idea of its origin/path and a clear measurement its accuracy.
My 2 cents from the cave. :-)
Jim - Great discussion!
Because the prisoners in the cave are chained and unable to turn their heads to see what goes on behind them, they perceive the shadows as reality. They perceive imperfect reflections of truth and reality.
Bringing the allegory to modern times, this serves as a good reminder that companies MUST embrace data quality for an accurate and REAL view of customers, business initiatives, prospects, and so on. Continuing to view half-truths based on possibly faulty data and information means you are just lost in a dark cave!
I also like the comparison to the Mirrors of Erised. One of my favorite movies is the Matrix, in which there are also a lot of parallelisms to Plato's Cave Allegory. As Morpheus says to Neo: "That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind." Once Neo escapes the Matrix, he discovers that his whole life was based on shadows of the truth.
Plato, Harry Potter, and Morpheus - I'd love to hear a discussion between the three of them in a cave!
Great food for thought Jim!
I like your analogy. At the end of the day, as data professionals we're overlaying digital interpretation onto analogue, real life behaviour (i.e., we ourselves are the puppeteers). Our customers will then take our digital representation, and interpret it into an anologue decision (the prisoners). Even ignoring data accuracy, this presents an obvious risk.
Having said that, a digital clock is still useful, even though it can't represent every possible time like an analogue clock does. Using tools such as data governance and master data management, the only thing that matters is that we understand each others needs sufficiently to provide good enough information within good enough timeframes for our customers to make good enough decisions.
From the LinkedIn Group for DAMA International, Mark Bernard commented:
“Data (bits and bytes) are not the same as information which is knowledge in its simplest form. Data is basically unprocessed information which until processed is relatively meaningless.
This basic common understanding is why data in the real world doesn't matter. In my opinion, these basic concepts are necessary so that the lifecycle of information can be realized and understood - not to be confused with the raw product.
This is similar to the seeds that farmers sew, the product could be corn or a grape which needs to get to market, but if the basic concept that the product comes from seeds can’t be explained in the information /knowledge lifecycle it will be difficult or nearly impossible to manage.”
And Peter Benson commented:
“Actually I would go substantially further, whereas data was originally no more than a representation of the real world and if validation was required the real world was the "authoritative source" — but that is clearly no longer the case.
Data is in fact the new reality!
Data is now used to track everything, if the data is wrong the real world item disappears. It may have really been destroyed or it may be simply lost, but it does not matter, if the data does not provide evidence of its existence then it does not exist. If you doubt this, just think of money, how much you have is not based on any physical object but on data.
By the way the theoretical definition I use for data is as follows:
Datum: a disruption in a continuum.
The practical definition I use for data is as follows:
Data: elements into which information is transformed so that it can be stored or moved.”
All those years ago in the Holy Grail, Monty Python had it right: "It's only a model!"