In an age dominated by big data and algorithms, Nora Bateson, the President of the International Bateson Institute (IBI), is taking a bold step backwards - yet forwards at the same time. Her warm-data theory invites us to view the world not in terms of isolated data points, but rather as a living network of relationships. Big data often provides us with decontextualised information that can lead to suboptimal decisions, especially regarding complex systems. As the daughter of the eminent anthropologist Gregory Bateson, Nora Bateson grew up with the notion that everything was interlinked. This perspective guides her work to this day.
In her award-winning documentary about her father, An Ecology of Mind, as well as her new book, Combining, she reveals how this way of thinking can fundamentally change our understanding of the world. So what is warm data? Bateson explains: “Warm data would give us the information about how the system is working: why it is the way it's being, and how it is functioning in its larger set of relationships." She insists that warm and cold data (i.e. classic quantitative data) aren't contradictory, but rather complement one another: “These two kinds of information could be friends, they could be in tandem to each other.”
From theory to practice
One particularly exciting element of Bateson’s approach is the warm data lab; an innovative experiment in collective perception. Here, people gather to look at complex issues from different perspectives. Warm data labs blur the boundaries between disciplines, potentially opening the door to new insight.
One example of this method’s success, described in a report by the Learning Development Institute, is Bateson’s collaboration with Microsoft’s AI team. Warm data labs helped the team to realise that their AI solutions can't be developed without considering the interactions between the various contexts that impact them. This finding led them to take a new approach in their IT development process.
Bateson’s ideas have far-reaching implications in areas from education and business to environmental policy. “If we can change the way we perceive the world, the way we see it and think about it, an important first step is done,” Bateson says. Given the global crises facing humanity, such a change of perspective could pave the way to innovative solutions.
A fresh outlook for an interconnected world
Hear Nora Bateson speak at the European Trend Day at the GDI on 12 March 2025: “Highway to Heaven? How AI Transforms Society and Work” Let yourself be inspired by a visionary who shows us that the future lies in connections, not division.