Garbage in, garbage out

History

The expression was popular in the early days of computing. The first known use is in a 1957 syndicated newspaper article about US Army mathematicians and their work with early computers, in which an Army Specialist named William D. Mellin explained that computers cannot think for themselves, and that "sloppily programmed" inputs inevitably lead to incorrect outputs. The underlying principle was noted by the inventor of the first programmable computing device design:

More recently, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch comes to a similar conclusion:

The term may have been derived from last-in, first-out (LIFO) or first-in, first-out (FIFO).

Uses

This phrase can be used as an explanation for the poor quality of a digitized audio or video file. Although digitizing can be the first step in cleaning up a signal, it does not, by itself, improve the quality. Defects in the original analog signal will be faithfully recorded, but might be identified and removed by a subsequent step by digital signal processing.

GIGO is also used to describe failures in human decision-making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data.

In audiology, GIGO describes the process that occurs at the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) when auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder is present. This occurs when the neural firing from the cochlea has become unsynchronized, resulting in a static-filled sound being input into the DCN and then passed up the chain to the auditory cortex. The term was applied by Dan Schwartz at the 2012 Worldwide ANSD Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida, on 16 March 2012; and adopted as industry jargon to describe the electrical signal received by the DCN and passed up the auditory chain to the superior olivary complex on the way to the auditory cortex destination.

GIGO was the name of a Usenet gateway program to FidoNet, MAUSnet, e.a.

The phrase may also be used in the context of machine learning, where poor-quality training data will inevitably lead to a poor-quality model.

References

References

1. Demming, Anna. (2019-06-30). "Machine learning collaborations accelerate materials discovery".
2. Adair, John. (2009-02-03). "The Art of Creative Thinking: How to be Innovative and Develop Great Ideas". Kogan Page Publishers.
3. (10 November 1957). "Work With New Electronic 'Brains' Opens Field For Army Math Experts". The Hammond Times.
4. Babbage, Charles. (1864). "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher". Longman and Co..
5. Quinion, Michael. (5 November 2005). "Garbage in, garbage out". World Wide Words.
6. {{FOLDOC. Garbage+in%2C+garbage+out
7. Berlin, Hood, Russell, Morlet et al (2010) [http://csd.cbcs.usf.edu/an/Berlin_ANSD.pdf Multi-site diagnosis and management of 260 patients with Auditory Neuropathy-Dys-synchrony (Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder)]
8. jfesler. (2001-01-01). "GIGO History".