In the era of Big Data we’ve been led to believe that with enough information we can predict human behaviour and forecast the future ahead of us.

There are no shortage of stories where numbers have allowed us to unlock answers to our biggest questions. But numbers can also lead us perilously awry.

Machine learning algorithms can detect tumours in pathology slides but can they increase our chances of long term survival? We have new techniques and neural nets at our disposal but are they truly an improvement on old methods? Do we really understand the cost of this increasing complexity?

Some of the best minds in the world have been guilty of finding signals in the noise where there are none. Of missing or misinterpreting subtle signals to catastrophic consequences. When we believe numbers hold objective fact, do we risk falling easily into the trap of over reliance?

In this talk, Hannah will take you on a tour of some of the most important lessons science has learned in the replication crisis. Discover what happens when things go wrong and probe at the edges of quantitative thinking.

Afterwards, decide what parts of our future are truly forecastable, decode the power and potential of data and uncover the limitations at play.

Seminar Schedule