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The Numerati
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The Numerati Paperback - 2009

by Baker, Stephen

  • Used
  • very good
  • Paperback

Every day, people create loads of data about themselves just by living in the modern world. Now, a group of mathematicians is sifting through this data to profile individuals and manipulate behavior without anyone even realizing it.

Description

Mariner Books, 2009-09-08. paperback. Very Good. 5x0x8. Each book is inspected by store owner/staff.
Used - Very Good
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Details

  • Title The Numerati
  • Author Baker, Stephen
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Condition Used - Very Good
  • Pages 256
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Mariner Books, USA
  • Date 2009-09-08
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 231004014
  • ISBN 9780547247939 / 0547247931
  • Weight 0.52 lbs (0.24 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 in (20.07 x 13.21 x 2.03 cm)
  • Dewey Decimal Code 303.483

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Summary

Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Companies like Yahoo! and Google are harvesting an average of 2,500 details about each of us every month. Who is looking at this data and what are they doing with it? 
 
Journalist Stephen Baker explores these questions and provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're entering—and to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, voters, potential terrorists—and lovers. The implications are vast. Privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor our every move. Retailers can better tempt us to make impulse buys. But the Numerati can also work on our behalf, diagnosing an illness before we're aware of the symptoms, or even helping us find our soul mate. Entertaining and enlightening, The Numerati shows how a powerful new endeavor—the mathematical modeling of humanity—will transform every aspect of our lives.

Categories

Excerpt

What will the Numerati learn about us as they run us into dizzying combinations of numbers? First they need to find us.
Say you're a potential SUV shopper in the northern suburbs of New York, or a churchgoing, antiabortion Democrat in Alburquerque. Maybe you're a Java programmer ready to relocate to Hyderabad, or a jazz-loving, Chianti-sipping Sagittarius looking for walks in the country and snuggles by the fireplace in Stockholm, or--heaven help us--maybe you're eager to strap bombs to your waist and climb onto a bus.
Whatever you are--and each of us is a lot of things--companies and governments want to identify and locate you. The Numerati also want to alter our behavior. If we're shopping, they want us to buy more. At the workplace, they're out to boost our productivity.
When we're patients, they want us healthier and cheaper. As companies like IBM and Amazon roll out early models of us, they can predict our behavior and experiment with us. They can simulate changes in a store or an office and see how we would likely react. And they can attempt to calculate mathematically how to boost our performance. How would shoppers like me respond to a $100 rebate on top-of-the-line Nikon cameras?
How much more productive would you be at the office if you had a $600 course on spreadsheets? How would our colleagues cope if the company eliminated our positions, or folded them into operations in Bangalore? We don't have to participate, or even know that our mathematical ghosts are laboring night and day as lab rats. We'll receive the results of these studies--the optimum course--as helpful suggestions, prescriptions, or marching orders.

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