Throughout recent history, human development has been characterized by a variety of different aspects. Selim Jahan, the head of the UNDP program defines human development as "development of the people, for the people, and by the people," which refers to increasing capital, the quality of lives of people, and the participation of people in shaping these processes. Humanity as a whole has realized this vision to a limited extent because although we have made substantial progress in terms of wealth and quality of life, there are many areas of the world that have yet to achieve such progress.
Because of the differences in the amount of developmental progress within different countries, it can only be argued that humanity has fulfilled Jahan's idea of development to a limited extent. In his talk, _The Best Stats You've Ever Seen,_ Hans Rosling shows that the average GDP per capita as well as the average life expectancies within many different countries have increased since the 1960's. However, he then shows that within countries, particularly South Africa, there is heavy variation in the GDP of individuals with many people still languishing in poverty despite the increase in the number of rich people, showing that even though overall, humanity has greater wealth and a better quality of life than it did many years ago, we have not fully realized Jahan's vision of human development.
Because of the vast capabilities enabled by data science, it plays a major role in advancing the human condition. To exemplify, it has allowed for much greater safety of populations vulnerable to climate disasters. In their article, "Mobile Phone Data for Urban Climate Change Adaptation: Reviewing Applications, Opportunities and Key Challenges," the authors describe how data from cell phones can be used to track the overall movement of populations, allowing for better assessment of vulnerability to natural disasters and emergency responses accordingly. By having much greater knowledge adaptive capabilities to natural disasters, these populations enjoy greater security, showing how data science has facilitated the advancement of the human condition.
Even with the combined efforts of computer science and conventional statistics, in order to generate valuable solutions, public policy must play a role in allowing for adaptation to occur. In his lecture, _Development and Complexity_, Owen Barder discusses the importance of adaptation in developing solutions to global problems. Using Kapuscinski's book, _The Emperor_, he describes how autocratic regimes suppress co-evolution to maintain power, undermining any developmental potential of the population. This shows that even if we have the vast knowledge offered by data science and statistics, our government must promote adaptive capabilities in addition in order for us to be able to work towards global solutions, since otherwise, our knowledge would be of little use for the greater good.
Because of the proliferation and ubiquity of misinformation in the modern world, we have little hope in securing the best path for humanity. This January, because of rampant misinformation about fraud in the election, thousands of people stormed the Capital in order to try and undermine the integrity of the votes, showing that misinformation has become a serious threat to our democracy. Because so many people vehemently support misinformation and the dissolution of democratic institutions, a key component of freedom and the developmental processes, it is unlikely that humanity as a whole will follow the best path. Unless we can crack down on misinformation and the manipulation of facts, a substantial portion of the population will perpentually hinder our efforts to follow a path towards greater good.