Living in Data: A Citizen's Guide to a Better Information Future

To live in data in the twenty-first century is to be incessantly extracted from, classified and categorized, statistic-ified, sold, and surveilled. Data―our data―is mined and processed for profit, power, and political gain. In Living in Data, Thorp asks a crucial question for our time: How do we stop passively inhabiting data, and instead become active citizens of it?

Threading a data story through hippo attacks, glaciers, and school gymnasiums, around colossal rice piles, and over active minefields, Jer Thorp reminds us that the future of data is still wide open, that there are ways to transcend facts and figures to engage more viscerally with data, and that there are always new stories to be told about how data can be used.

Punctuated with Thorp’s original and informative illustrations, Living in Data not only redefines what data is, but also reimagines who gets to speak its language and how to use its power to create a more just and democratic future. Timely and inspiring, Living in Data gives us a much-needed path forward.

Paperback, Aug 30th 2022