"I think if we look at the big, electronic universe that surrounds us in this Darwinian sense, then we can see that in a sense, it's a big parasite, and it lives off us. And it serves our interests in a lot of ways, but we have to make sure that we understand the value of our own knowledge, our own data and our own attention. We have to become masters of that electronic world, and not let it master us."
-- Stephen L. Baker, author of "The Numerati" and former senior technology writer at BusinessWeek, speaking on “The Numerati: How Our Lives Will be Monitored, Measured and Managed in the Coming Age of Big Data” at the Penn State Forum lunch at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus. For information about remaining speakers in the series, visit http://live.psu.edu/story/40651 online.