
The Numerati
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Narrated by:
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Richard Powers
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By:
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Stephen Baker
About this listen
Every day, we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls.
Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the 21st century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is beginning to sift through this data to profile us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists, even lovers. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior - what we buy, how we vote - without our even realizing it.
In this tour de force of original reporting and analysis, journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering and the people controlling that world.
©2008 Stephen Baker (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Steve Baker puts his finger on perhaps the most important cultural trend today: the explosion of data about every aspect of our world and the rise of applied math gurus who know how to use it." (Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief, Wired magazine)
Baker enlivens his books with his travel tales as he collects the information about the Big Data revolution in American commerce, and with details from his life, which is charming and does make the numbers go down with a spoonful of sugar. I found myself listening for hours at a time, and I don't usually do that with nonfiction. I recommend this book as fascinating and entertaining ----- and it's just as well we know what is going on as we all become numbers to manipulate by big business.
Corporations hunt us through the forests of number
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Interesting Overview of the Topic
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Numerous Reasons to Read
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Eye Opening!
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It is a very interesting read but there are two other books, Supercrunchers and the Drunkard's Walk that address this same phenomena in different and better ways. All three books demonstrate how this data is used and how one could take advantage of it.
Good but not the best of the genre
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I thought one of the most interesting takeaways is that number-crunchers are working toward a world in which each real human can be modeled electronically, representing a multitude of characteristics. This model will be used to predict how the person will behave in various contexts -- economic, social, political, medical."
The Numerati want to model you
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At this time of turbulent change, it is very thought provoking on how business and management could evolve.
Fascinating way to look at detail
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A good collection about the pace of development and variety of future applications of the "numerati" professionals who are sifting and gleaning among our everyday activities which we hardly notice. Maybe all of HAL's brethren were not disconnected in 2001 ?
Balanced Warning and Possibilities
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Liked it and learned a lot
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Who is Watching You?
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