Dataism and the Ship of Theseus

Data is the new oil. When something is converted into data, it means it has computational “handles” available for use in programming. More and more aspects of our lives are now processed by computers. Can your computer know you better than you know yourself? Can anything be turned into data? Should everything be turned into data?

As we will see, adding zeros to a repeat loop in code is very easy. You probably already know that computers can store vast amounts of data and have become fast and tireless in processing it. Once you make many things computationally accessible, computers put tremendous scaling power in your hands. Everything becomes enormous. We see the effects of this in the concentration of wealth in the tech world and, more recently, in the growing capabilities of machine learning. But is this a good thing?

Clearly, as MIT Media Lab’s article suggests, they don’t think this is necessarily good. They formed an alliance to address biases that arise in data processing at scale. They introduced the term “coded gaze,” which reminds me of the “male gaze,” a concept that has sparked much debate over the years, although the two are fundamentally different.

Here, I’d like to introduce a term popularized in Homo Deus—Dataism. Dataists believe that the universe consists of data and that the value of any phenomenon or entity lies in its contribution to data processing.

Matter and Form

In the 1st century AD, Plutarch posed a question: If the wood on the ship of Theseus were gradually replaced until none of the original wood remained, would it still be the same ship? Similarly, if I replace one cell in my body at a time until every cell has been replaced, am I still the same person? Would my current consciousness die and a new one arise with the new body?

We need to distinguish between the “matter” and the “form” of an object. The ancient Greeks compared matter to the raw materials of a house and form to the blueprint. Specifically, matter refers to the physical components of an object, like the cells that make up the body. Form refers to the relationships and organization of these fundamental elements, such as the arrangement of wood on the ship of Theseus. Completely different matter can still constitute an object with the same form as long as the organization remains identical.

For example, carving letters onto a stone changes its form without altering its matter, as it now has ordered patterns. If we gradually replace the stone’s molecules until it becomes wood, we’ll notice a significant change in its matter, but the letters carved onto it remain unchanged. This demonstrates that the stone’s matter is simply the medium for the letters’ form, and form can persist even when its medium changes completely.

The same reasoning applies to our consciousness. Consciousness essentially represents the “carving” on the brain’s matter. No matter how much the material of our bodies changes, as long as the form of consciousness remains intact, we are still ourselves.

Should Everything Be Turned into Data?

The form of a painting is supported by pigments and canvas. Now, take a photo of it and save it as an electronic image. The photo captures the painting’s form—its visual image—but the medium changes to electrical signals in a chip. Computers serve as a universal medium for form, allowing us to store any form as data in a chip.

Inspired by computers, we realize that all forms are abstractions of data. Data can be stored in different media, such as real-world matter, the personality of Sophie as stored in the author’s mind, or, in Theseus’ ship, its physical materials. Data in the form of matter exists objectively, not merely for human comprehension.

The words carved onto a stone exist for humans to understand, but the data in its form existed in the stone before human interpretation; human understanding merely reads that data and translates it into linguistic information.

Can Data Know Humans Better Than Humans Know Themselves?

Absolutely. The keywords you search, the websites you browse, your spending habits, movement patterns, even your heart rate and sleep quality—these data points are recorded every second. When all this information is aggregated and analyzed, data can reveal insights you might not be aware of. Data doesn’t just observe your behavior; it analyzes your patterns and predicts your decisions. Humans often struggle with this level of understanding due to limitations in memory, perception, and complex data processing abilities.

Take health data, for example. Smartwatches and health apps can accurately monitor your physical activity, heart rate, and sleep metrics. Many people don’t notice trends, like consistently experiencing insomnia at certain times or an unusually high heart rate during specific activities, but data can clearly reveal these patterns, even issuing alerts before symptoms fully appear.

Now consider the psychological aspect. Every day, people leave countless digital footprints on social media and the internet, from search queries and preferences to likes, comments, and shared news, even private messages. These data points reflect your interests, emotional fluctuations, and values. Machine learning algorithms can map out emotional trends and areas of focus that you may not consciously notice. Sometimes, data analysis can even predict your future mood changes, shifts in consumer behavior, or career interests—often detecting these changes before you do.

China’s popular social media app, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), is often regarded as the “king of algorithms” due to its precise user profile analysis and powerful “information bubble” mechanism.

For instance, if you frequently browse fitness-related content, Xiaohongshu will recommend more articles and suggestions on the topic. But it goes deeper than simple interest-based recommendations. By analyzing your browsing behavior, the system can gauge your underlying needs. If you often view content about emotional well-being or mental health over a period, the system might infer that you are feeling down or anxious, and it will then recommend soothing content or mental health-related products and courses.

Even more interestingly, Xiaohongshu can predict your psychological state by tracking the creators you follow and the themes of their content. For example, if you follow several creators who focus on “self-discipline,” the system may assume you are pursuing self-improvement, and it will suggest content on productivity, early rising, and time management.

All of this insight is gained through data’s “observation,” and sometimes it can even give users an uncanny sense of being “seen through.”