In a dazzlingly complex world, you have to be able to discern the meaning in the mess.
- Professor Stephen Hawking
Speaking at the launch of the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information (CCIMI) on Thursday, Professor Hawking said: “In a dazzlingly complex world, you have to be able to discern the meaning in the mess. We are, in a figurative and literal sense, awash with what we call data… What we’re only now fully realising is twofold: the sheer quantity of data in any given domain; and the tools we need to make use of the information encoded in it.
“The power of information… only comes from the sophistication of the insights which that information lends itself to. The purpose of using information, in this context, is to drive new insight. For example, I may have taken great pleasure in talking to you about hairy black holes, as I did earlier this year, but the question is: just how hairy are they? What are the implications of the knowledge I believe I have now gained?
“There is another question, and this is really where this Institute comes into its own: what new mathematical tools do I need to open up new fields of insight? This is the heart of the Cantab Capital Institute: to drive forward the development of insight, and so enrich a multitude of fields of relevance to us all.”
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Image: Professor Stephen Hawking
Credit: University of Cambridge
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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