# The Data Revolution Can Monitor Changes in the Human Condition by Alex Pentland > “The vast majority of humanity now has a two-way digital connection that can send voice, text, and most recently, images and digital sensor data because cell phone networks have spread nearly everywhere. Information is suddenly something that is potentially available to everyone. The Data Revolution combines this enormous new stream of data about human life and behavior with traditional data sources, enabling a new science of ‘social physics’ that can let us detect and monitor changes in the human condition, and to provide precise, non-traditional interventions to aid human development.” > **— Alex "Sandy" Pentland**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Edge response](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26787) — Edge published this passage in its 2016 Annual Question collection, *WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC*. - **Exact archived wording:** “More concretely, the vast majority of humanity now has a two-way digital connection that can send voice, text, and most recently, images and digital sensor data because cell phone networks have spread nearly everywhere. Information is suddenly something that is potentially available to everyone. The Data Revolution combines this enormous new stream of data about human life and behavior with traditional data sources, enabling a new science of “social physics” that can let us detect and monitor changes in the human condition, and to provide precise, non-traditional interventions to aid human development.” - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response cohort and this passage's promotion status. - **Editorial treatment:** The readable Reminder selects a self-contained portion of the archived passage and, where necessary, applies light punctuation or transcription repair. It does not add a consequence or increase the speaker's certainty; the complete exact archived wording is preserved above. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Internet|Internet]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Internet|Internet]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The vast majority of humanity now has a two-way digital connection that can send voice, text, and most recently, images and digital sensor data because cell phone networks have spread nearly everywhere. Information is suddenly something that is potentially available to everyone. The Data Revolution combines this enormous new stream of data about human life and behavior with traditional data sources, enabling a new science of ‘social physics’ that can let us detect and monitor changes in the human condition, and to provide precise, non-traditional interventions to aid human development.” — Alex "Sandy" Pentland, 2016, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-alex-pentland-data-revolution-human-condition ```