Abstract

One of the macroscopic phenomena of the Digital revolution is the explosion of data, the annual production of which broke through the zettabyte barrier after 2010. Since then, authoritative scholars – and even international organizations such as the UN – have started talking about the Data Revolution. The aim of this essay is to show that the term «Data Revolution» actually means two different things: a (objective) process and an (ideological) project. The former is the result of the convergence of multiple aspects of the Digital revolution, the latter represents a new way of conceiving knowledge and using it for decision-making processes, i.e. for any form of «governance of reality». It focuses on the data-driven approach, which is applied to both science and society as a whole through social physics. After explaining the assumptions and goals of data-driven science and data-driven society, the article concludes by showing the dark side of the Data revolution (as a project) and the challenge it poses to democratic institutions.