Computers — When a Person Became a Record
Computer and database age
Records and databases
When information began to be modeled
For thousands of years, information about people was stored on paper.
To a computer, a person is a record
Computers understand data, not reputation, emotion or intuition.
Records enabled management at scale
Millions of people could be managed through one shared structure.
Modeling also means simplification
Hundreds of fields still cannot represent a whole person.
Databases are strong with structured questions
Who, where and when are easy; why, value and growth are not.
Standardization created the next foundation
Records can be copied, synchronized, analyzed and linked.
Databases expanded the ability to process people
Greater scale does not automatically mean deeper understanding.
Are records enough to represent a person?
Can a collection of records truly represent a person?
Next comes fragmented identity on the Internet
People will exist across many platforms as disconnected data fragments.