Meanings
- uncountableThe collection and analysis of machine-sensed environmental data pertaining to human social behavior, with the goal of identifying predictable patterns of behavior.First known use 2004
Practitioners of Reality Mining soon discover the multitudes of analytic techniques suitable for their data sets.
2014, Nathan Eagle, Kate Greene, Reality Mining: Using Big Data to Engineer a Better World, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 52 more examples
Most working professionals already carry microphones (cell phones), and many also carry PDAs with ample computational horsepower. This foundation of mobile communications and processing power will support an exciting new suite of business applications: reality mining.
2004 March 31, Alex Pentland, ““Reality Mining” the Organization”, in MIT Technology ReviewFrom the start, [Alex] Pentland understood reality mining as the gateway to a new universe of commercial opportunities. In 2004 he asserted that cell phones and other wearable devices with “computational horsepower” would provide the “foundation” for reality mining as an “exciting new suite of business applications.”
2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 15, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Origin
Coined by Alex Pentland and Nathan Eagle, after data mining, etc.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
reality mining. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reality%20mining
“reality mining.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reality%20mining. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reality mining,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reality%20mining.
Source: reality mining on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.