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The revolutions in Big Data and cyberspace give social and computer scientists powerful new tools to watch people. But they also show why Big Data alone cannot explain the world. There is a desperate need to combine social and data science, and a dire shortage of people who can do this. That creates opportunities that anthropologists should grab. In a globalized world where semiotic codes keep changing we should value people who can navigate different cultures in the real world and cyberspace. And as contagion risks arise, policy makers, businesses, and nongovernmental groups need people who have the imagination to see dangers in a holistic way, be that in relation to pandemics, nuclear threats, the environment, or something similar. In short, the world would benefit if there were more anthropologists who can blend their perspectives with other disciplines such as computing, medicine, finance, law, and much else, or inject their vision into policy making.
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