Recently, I was asked the question: "Why did you decide to learn Data Science?" The first things that came to mind were events like teaching myself Python during the downtime of my old security job, writing Python scripts to input and display company traveler data on a flight-map, or just how much fun I had making reports on which doors were used most frequently at my work building. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these were contributing factors to my decision to study Data Science, not the primary reason. The primary reason comes from a story that has stuck with me since I first heard it. In 2007 Japanese tech company Brain Co. Ltd. had seen moderate success selling software to big companies.

Artificial intelligence designed to recognize different type of pastries could be a vital tool in the medical world. BakeryScan, developed by Japan-based Brain Co., scans baked good on a tray with a camera and uploads the official name of each to a system for easy checkout at a bakery – but scientists found it can also identify cancer. A doctor from the Louise Pasteur Center for Medical Research in Kyoto had the system revised to spot cancerous cells on a microscope slide with 99 percent accuracy. Instead of investigating doughnut holes and bread ridges, the redesigned system, called Cyto-AisCAN, analyzes a urinary cell to identify and measure its nucleus to determine if it is diseased. BakeryScan, developed by Japan-based Brain Co., scans baked good on a tray with a camera and uploads the official name of each to a system for easy checkout at a bakery – but scientists found it can also identify cancer.

We are in a similar pre-conscious state now, but the voice we hear is not the other side of our brains. It's our digital self–a version of us that is quickly becoming inseparable from our physical self. I call this comingled digital and analog self our "Meta Me." The more the Meta Me uses digital tools, the more conscious it will become–a development that will have tremendous social, ethical, and legal implications. Some are already coming to light.