Martyn Rhisiart Jones

A Coruña, 12th November 2025

CONSIDER THIS: DATA AS A MIRROR OF HUMANITY

Friends, Roman, Countryfolk! In an age where every tap on a screen, every fleeting glance at a smartwatch, and even the subtle rhythm of a resting pulse are silently collected as data, what does this immense and glittering digital mosaic reveal about our innermost selves and the selves we have yet to inhabit?

Data is far more than sterile columns of numbers or inscrutable lines of code; it is the resonance of countless human judgments, longings, and frailties. A single set of social media interactions can predict the outcome of a national referendum with astonishing accuracy, expose the persistent fissures of economic inequality, or propel advances in personalized medicine that once seemed like science fiction. Yet the same currents that illuminate can also distort: ​​magnifying inherited biases, eroding personal privacy, and compressing the rich complexity of individual experience into the cold calculation of an algorithm. So pause and contemplate your own “digital footprint”: that invisible trail of transactions, searches, and biometric data you leave in your wake in both the virtual and physical realms.

Does it empower you, providing you with the information necessary to navigate a complex world? Or does it exert a more subtle tyranny, selecting your choices, influencing your preferences, and shaping your reality long before you’re even aware of its influence?

Deliberately managing data is the silent act of reclaiming it. It begins with observation: which apps silently record your location, which platforms monetize your attention, which health-tracking devices claim to know your mood? From observation comes choice: opting out whenever possible, intentionally selecting the information you receive, demanding transparency from the guardians of our collective mirror.

Deliberation transforms passive accumulation into active authorship. The question is no longer limited to what is captured, but rather what should be preserved, shared, or deleted. In an age of algorithmic serendipity, the deliberate practice of data makes all the difference between being a specimen under glass and a storyteller with pen (or stylus) in hand. By meditating on data, we don’t just examine a modern convenience tool; we shine a flashlight on the fragile and fluctuating core of our collective humanity. What narrative, please, will your data inscribe in the Libro de Mañana?

Many thanks for reading.