There is a new software tool called “MINE” (Maximal Information-based Nonparametric Exploration) that is specifically designed to mine large datasets for novel, i.e., not human selected, connections (the software essentially hypothesizes connections among disparate pieces of data, which connections humans may or may not have considered/identified). How useful does this seem for humanities research? I’m specifically thinking of how to integrate this tool with GIS to analyze distributions that may not have been considered before.

Check it out online at www.exploredata.net/