Reflections on the past and visions for the future

Abstract

Statistics as data is ancient, but as a discipline of study and research it has a short history. Courses leading to degrees in statistics have been introduced in universities some sixty to seventy years ago. They were not considered to constitute a basic discipline with a subject matter of its own. However, during the last seventy five years, it has developed as a powerful blend of science, technology and art for solving problems in all areas of human endeavor. Now-a-days statistics is used in scientific research, economic development through optimum use of resources, increasing industrial productivity, medical diagnosis, legal practice, disputed authorship, and optimum decision making at individual and institutional levels. What is the future of statistics in the coming millennium dominated by information technology encompassing the whole of communications, interaction with intelligent systems, massive data bases, and complex information processing networks? The current statistical methodology based on probabilistic models applied on small data sets appears to be inadequate to meet the needs of the society in terms of quick processing of data and making the information available for practical purposes. Adhoc methods are being put forward under the title Data Mining by computer scientists and engineers to meet the needs of customers. The paper reviews the current state of the art in statistics and discusses possible future developments considering the availability of large data sets, enormous computing power and efficient optimization techniques using genetic algorithms and neural networks.