Rate this book

They've Got Your Number...: Data, Digits And Destiny - How The Numerati Are Changing Our Lives (2008)

by Stephen Baker(Favorite Author)

3.41 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0099507021 (ISBN13: 9780099507024)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Vintage

review 1: Late last week, Stephen Baker's The Numerati caught my eye. Its cover belies the remarkable content inside, as Baker addresses as how every facet of our lives is being converted into data and tracked. Our masses of decisions and feelings are turned into bits that computers can analyze so that mathematicians can construct models that allow corporations to target us more accurately -- or 'serve us better', if you prefer. There are seven chapters, detailing the ways we are examined as workers, shoppers, voters,bloggers, potential terrorists, patients, and lovers. Although Baker is rather optimistic about the future of our lives under the microscope, I for one find that the idea of being tracked and scrutinized by economic powers stinks of predation. Baker takes heart in th... moree idea that the Numerati, the mathematicians tied to the computers who use their analyses to construct models that predict our behavior, aren't one monolithic elite. The political scientists are scrutinized as shoppers, and if they object to a shopping cart suggesting where they should go based on their purchase history, they can fight abuse within their field. I don't find this terribly reassuring, especially when it comes to labor issues. I recently read in Naomi Klein's No Logo how a certain coffee firm has realized how much more profitable it is to only call in most of their staff during peak hours, so that people are summoned to work at short intervals throughout the day instead of serving through a shift. The workers exist only for the employer's convenience: the modeling serves the managers' bottom line nicely, because they sell the same amount of merchandise but don't pay nearly as much for labor. The workers, on the other hand, can't make enough to support themselves and don't have time to do anything productive during their little intervals. It's the kind of story that makes you sympathize with those kids throwing bricks in Seattle.
review 2: The concept that analytical techniques have become so powerful that masses of data can now be plowed through to give us answers on all manner of things that previously were out of reach is, of course, becoming well trodden territory now. This book does a nice job of showing how 'big data' is influencing many aspects of our lives: choosing mates, designing products, evaluating risks.... in fact the premise of the book is that there is barely a nook or cranny that is untouched by 'Numerati'. But, despite the interesting anecdotes, it doesn't provide much insight into the different types of techniques that are deployed and almost totally ignores the still very relevant and old notion of Rubbish In/ Rubbish Out or, indeed, the fundamental weakness of human interpretation and how that impacts results. Very readable, but not much depth. less

Download links for: They've Got Your Number...: Data, Digits and Destiny - how the Numerati are changing our Lives

Advertising