Originally Published in Aspenia 63 “Where East meets West”, published in Aspenia 63, Aspen Institute Italia, Rome, December 2013 ( I thank Maurizio Paglia for the help in the English translation that can be found here)

 Nowadays the collection of an enormous quantity of data is technically quite feasible. Still, the treatment of “big data” cannot by itself improve the ability to forecast natural or social phenomena. In fact, even when the underlying dynamic laws are known, it keeps being difficult to understand the evolution of the forces that often give rise to chaotic behaviors.