Rosling Questions

Answer to Q1: Even though the Sweden students were very intelligent, the survey showed that they made pre-assumptions and generalizations about a given country based on the their surrounding enviornment (ie. because a country is in Africa it is poor country), making them only score an average of 1.8/5 on the survey. On the other hand, the Chimapanzees scored higher, merely because they didn’t make pre-assumptions and guessed on the 50-50 bases. The Faculty were also only up to par with the Chimpanzee because they also came into the survey with pre-conceived ideas. Coming into data science with pre-conceived ideas is detrimental because it prevents the data from speaking for itself, leading to inaccurate observations.

Answer to Q2: China changed from having larger families and shorter lives to having smaller families and longer lives. This transition allowed China mimic the population patterns of econmically thriving countries like the US, instilling the Chinese with a sense of optimisim for future economic growth.

Answer to Q3: As child mortality rate decreases, the GDP per capita increases.

Answer to Q4: Generally speaking, the income distribution among world countries decreased significantly (lesser gap between rich and poor) because third-world experienced great amounts of economic growth while first world countries stayed the same.

Answer to Q5: He uses these detailed resolution techniques to demonstrate that statistics (GDP or Child survival) we often generalize to a continent or large area are incorrect and that their are infact large statistical variations between countries in a the same region. He also seeks to demonstrate the same ideas in relation to economic and human development. In total, His presentation undermines the use of pre-conceived ideas while encouraging the use of data contexualization.

Answer to Q6: His contributions advanced the intersection of data science and global development because he promoted public data assess and thus the opporunity for the public to make impactful change with the data and to contribute to a process that would only otherwise be contributed by private companies.