thanks for your thoughtful post. I agree actually that the word "Science" is a bit elusive in definition, and that certainly just because a field of inquiry is not a science by one definition does not mean it's without value.

Also, I accept that there are multiple definitions of the word and some may include fields like Computer Science and Social Science, which of course are all legitimate fields of inquiry.

Lot's of people are up in arms here thinking im against data, queries or even information in general. LOL

I think guys like you are going to be in serious demand, and yes data is piling up hugely. The winning organizations will have serious, smart and well trained people who know how to manage it.

And yes, I think "nocturnal ergonomics specialist" is the career of the future =)

lol isnt it "Principal Engineer"? But point taken, it seems like "Scientist" is being bandied about quite a bit by just about anyone.

this is a good and rational perspective. I think if there is a formalization of the concept of Data Science including academic certification, maybe it could become more credible.

LOL I really like "weeping" it's pretty awesome in this context.

fully agree, data and big data will always have a home, and corporate behavior is very much how you describe.

Just thinking that the pendulum is going too far from structured data and that people are getting a bit ahead of themselves with respect to vendor hype in this area.

I'm not against big data sets.

I've just noted that a lot of big data projects hyped by vendors are misguided, and that there will be very large and visible failures coming up. this is just a bubble and the "data science" guys will be in trouble.

The long term prognosis for large scale data analysis is good, and machine learning will probably yield good results. Also the pendulum will swing back to structured data.