Wherever you look, information is staring back at you from road-signs, newspapers, computer screens, even this page. Nearly our whole lives are spent processing information and deciding what to do with it. Our actions are motivated by beliefs which are formulated depending on the data available to us. Information Generation is the story of the seminal role data plays in our lives and in the advance of our civilization. Starting with occasional scratching on cave walls, eminent statistician David J. Hand guides us right up to the modern era where society is completely dependent on an abundance of data systems for its very survival. Highlighting the sheer volume of data in our modern society, Hand says data can be seen like any raw material which is in need of refinement. While asking how we can be sure to access the correct information and take full advantage of the development of modern data-mining to search for information, Hand's book offers an accessible and beautifully written account to one of the most underrated and hugely important concepts in human society today.

Author David J. Hand is Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College, London. He has written over ten books on data and statistics including Principles of Data Mining (MIT Press, 2001), and has served as a consultant for governments around the world.