One of Newton's few friends was Edmund Halley, the man who first computed the orbit of his eponymous comet. Halley was a polymath, with expertise in astronomy, mathematics, physics, meteorology, geophysics, and cartography.
In 1693, Halley analyzed mortality data that had been compiled by Caspar Neumann in Breslau, Germany. Like Kepler's work with Brahe's data 90 years earlier, Halley's analysis led to new knowledge. His published results allowed the British government to sell life annuities at the appropriate price, based on the age of the annuitant.
Most data today is still numeric. But most of the algorithms we will be studying apply to a much broader range of possible values, including text, images, audio and video files, and even complete web pages on the internet.