الرقميون

by Stephen Baker, ستيفن بايكر

كتاب مذهل ومخيف بعض الشيء يخبرك لماذا ينبغي أن تسلك بين الحين والآخر طريقاً مختلفاً إلى عملك، أو أن تشتري شراب الورد مثلاً ًبدلا من المشروب الغازي، فقط بهدف تضليلهم!” – Utah Daily Herald هل تصفّحت الإنترنت؟ هل تسوّقت مستخدماً بطاقتك الائتمانية؟ وهل أجريت مكالمة بواسطة هاتفك الجوّال؟ نعم؟ فإذاً كل معلوماتك الشخصية أصبحت بحوذة الرقمّيين. أصبح لك سجلّ عندهم، وفيه تفاصيل عن كل جوانب حياتك وخصوصياتك وأسرارك.هم يراقبونك، يدرسون شخصيتك وأنماط سلوكك، فيتلاعبون بك، ومن دون أن تشعر، يقدّمون لك المغريات لتغيّر حياتك!يعرفونك أكثر من نفسك: في الإنتخابات المقبلة، ستصوّت لفلان بالتأكيد! قريباً ستشتري هذا المنتج، وستبدأ علاقة غراميّةً مع تلك الفتاة...لكن من هم، وماذا يفعلون بهذه المعلومات؟ في هذا الكتاب المشوّق وسهل الفهم، ستتعرف إليهم، سترى كيف يغيّرون العالم وسوف تذهل بحقيقة العالم الذي نوشك أن ندخله. ستيفن بايكر كاتب وصحافي أميركي حائز دبلوم في التاريخ ودبلوم في الإسبانية وماجستير في الصحافة. كتب لصحيفة بزنس ويك الأميركية لمدة تزيد على عشرين عاماً، ولكلٍّ من لوس أنجلوس تايمز، وبوسطن غلوب، ووال ستريت جورنال. غطّت مقالاته شؤون المكسيك وأميركا اللاتينية والتكنولوجيا الأوروبية والرياضيات، والعديد من المواضيع الأخرى. يشارك بايكر حالياً في تحرير مدوّنةBlogspotting.net . يصنّفونك: عاملاً، متسوّقاً، ناخباً، إرهابياً مُحتمَلاً، وحتى عاشقاً!

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Science, Technology, Mathematics, Audiobook, Sociology

264 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Stephen Baker is an American journalist. In 2008, he wrote The Numerati, a book about the Big Data economy. Until 2009 he worked for covered technology for BusinessWeek. In November, he left to go freelance and finish his second book, Final Jeopardy. His first novel, The Boost, is published by Tor Books (May 2014)

His blog for The Boost is:
http://ralflosthisboost.tumblr.com/

Reviews

[David Rubenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a book about the people who are exploiting "big data". I expected to hear about the people who analyze the huge data sets that are proliferating through our society. There is a little bit of that, but mostly I read about the technology itself, and the myriad of ways in which it is being used in all facets of life. Very interesting, but the title is misleading.

The problem is that the author is a journalist, and he writes the book like a memoir of some of his interviews. He mentions some of the buzz words like neural networks, support vector machine, Bayesian inference, but he does not show any understanding of these concepts. The author could have gotten some help from a real technologist, to co-author the book and explain these concepts. There is a lot of discussion about the applications for big data, but very little about the how the algorithms work. I guess my problem is that I am prejudiced against journalists writing books on subjects for which they are not experts. I much prefer to read books by experts in the field, who are also good communicators.

On the other hand, the book casts a wide net over many applications for big data. The chapter on medical information was fascinating. Sensors in our homes, and perhaps even in our bodies may allow doctors to remotely monitor our health. The trick is to filter the immense amount of information, and summarize it in an easy-to-digest format. Send out an alert when something isn't right, but make sure that false alarms don't prevail.

Big data is being used by politicians, by companies large and small, by retailers, intelligence agencies, and online dating sites. The author describes an interesting experiment he conducted with his wife. They both enrolled on an online dating site, to see if the algorithms would find that they are a good match for one another.

[Obied Alahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

كانت خارجة لتوها من غرفة الاستحمام المشتركة مع طالبات أخريات .. وفجأة صاحت أحداهن " يوجد رجال في هذا الطابق "
كانت عارية تماما ولا تحمل الا منشفة صغيرة لا تستر كامل عريها ... بدأت تفكر أي قسم من جسدها يجب أن تستر فلا يمكن للمنشفة أن تستر كامل جسدها ... فكرت ومن ثم قررت .. أن تغطي رأسها ومشت عارية نحو غرفتها
وصلت إلى قناعة " أنه من الأهم أن تخفي هويتك من أن تستر جسدك "
..
.
جميعنا لدينا أسرار منها ما نحتفظ به لأنفسنا ومنها ما نتشارك به مع اهلنا واقاربنا ومنها ما يعرفه الطبيب ومنها ما يعرفه البنك ومنها ما يعرفه البائع ووو
ولكنها تظل مجرد معطيات غير مترابطة فمن سيضمن جمع كل هؤلاء في مكان واحد ليتحدثو عن كل ما يخصنا فتتكون صورة كاملة عن شخصيتنا بأسرارها وعيوبها
ولكن ...هذا كان سابقا..

أما الآن فالوضع مختلف ..

كل حركاتنا ونقراتنا على لوحة المفاتيح وشاشات هواتفنا تسجلها الكومبيوترات كل عمليات الشراء تسجلها بطاقات الفيزا وبطاقات السحب من الصراف كل الادوية التي نتناولها والكتب التي نقرأها حتى تنقلاتنا يسجلها جهاز تحديد المواقع في الجوال وكاميرات المراقبة في الشوارع

أحاسيسنا ومشاعرنا التي نبثها عالتواصل الاجتماعي صورنا وصور موائدنا ورحلاتنا عالانستغرام ومن يصادقونا ومن يتابعوننا

كلها معطيات عشوائية ...

ولكن هناك من يجلس ليجمعها ومن ثم يبوبها ويحللها ويكون منها انماط شخصياتنا وأذواقنا ونوازعنا ومهاراتنا
ليوصلها مجانا أو بمبالغ خيالية لأرباب العمل وللمتاجر ولشركات التسويق و لكل من يهتم .. والأهم أجهزة الاستخبارات التي تراقب وتراقب

هؤلاء " الرقميون أو المحللون أيا كان تسميتهم هم من يتابع خطواتك ويسجلها ويحتفظ بها "

وبعد كل هذا هل أنلومهم أم نلوم الحكومات أم أم .. لا .. فنحن الذين تحولنا لمقدمي معلومات مجانية للجميع

وإن كان من عدم المجدي أن نمنع هذا التدخل في الخصوصية وهذا التسريب للمعلومات فلعلنا نعود للقاعدة " أن تخفي هويتك أهم من أن تستر جسدك "

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

well. i thought this would be the next malcolm gladwell, steven levitt masterpiece, but instead it's a book that has a catchy title/cover and even a great premise, but the author (Stephen Baker) fails to deliver much new information about how 'the world is watching our every move.' could've condensed the entire book to a magazine article.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that has not aged well, which is not surprising since the purpose was to be timely, but there are points in these pages that reveal just how shallow Baker's understanding of this topic is. This lack of depth is especially regretted since the particular moment he was writing in was a remarkable period. The 2000's were a decade of radical changes in approaches to data mining and modeling, largely coming out of incredible leaps in processing speed and capability. Inventive algorithms and cheap data storage essentially put data mining at the center of everyone's business plan.

Since 2010 the Big Data project has pretty much ossified into a set of standard approaches that are proven to be robust and has almost entirely rebutted all of Baker's key ideas, and the kind of pie (or eye)-in-the-sky hyperbole that Baker indulges in here is nothing but nonsense pushed forward by a minority and already viewed as unuseful and overreaching in 2008. If Snowden's act of petty treason did anything, it revealed that in the half a decade after Baker's book went to press, the brightest lights in data mining and modeling with all the money in the world and unfettered access to all of our data were still as bad at organizing the data of individuals along meaningful axes as they were before the patriot act and 9/11, let alone making enough sense from the data to model anyone's behavior well enough to predict who would become the next Osama bin Laden. The only significant change in personal metrics and big data in the past decade is the ability to store more and move through it faster. Truly the problem is that the modelers are awash in so much data that were the types of data collection issues that are the only parts of the book that Baker has a handle on the bottleneck on the road to a modeled future of the kind he predicts, then we would have passed some critical threshold some years ago. Instead, none of his predictions hold up, and I don't think Baker understands why or really cares.

A math-illiterate journalist's approach to a technical topic written to formula borrowed from writers like Thomas Friedman(daily example, specific angle derived from the daily example, meet the excited expert who is given to exciting statements about exciting changes!!!!, possible problems, brush aside problems with a light laugh and move on); with an occasionally bizarre choice of example (i.e. holding up the market crash of 2007-8 as an example of well-intentioned but flawed market modeling rather than criminal behavior); and an optimistic misunderstanding of the realities throughout.

[M.Muslim · Rating 3 out of 5]

الطفرةُ التكنولوجية ولَّدت ابتكاراتٍ على مستوى التقنيات من جهةِ سرعة التواصل وتقريب المسافات مع الآخرين عن طريق اجهزة الحاسوب والهواتف الخليوية "الأجهزة الذكيَّة"، استطاعوا أنْ يجعلوا هذه الأخيرة عالميَّة، سلوكُ الناس أصبحَ على نمطٍ واحد في هذه الأجهزة وهذه إحدى النجاحات التي تُحققُ عنوان "العولمة"..

بعد كل ذلك يتمكَّنونَ من رصد السلوكيات والتفاعلات، وجعلها في خوارزميات، ثمَّ تحوليها إلى معادلاتٍ رقميَّة ورياضيَّةٍ، فيسهُلُ حينها تحليلُ ذلك، والكشفِ عن أمورٍ خافية تُسهل عمليَّة الاختراق ..!

الكثير من القاضايا المذهلة موجودةٌ في هذا الكتاب، فأنصح الأخوة والأخوات بقرائته

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Journalist Stephen L. Baker wrote this forward-thinking book nearly 10 years ago, connecting math to computer assessments of the population and describing the results. While the history is good, the current analysis and future predictions are a ways off.

The authors math seems up to the challenge, but he underestimates the power and storage of computers and overestimates the cleverness of algorithmic methods. The result is chapters on topics which seem very dated. The writing style is anecdotal and the research too personal for my tastes.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter was on medical monitoring, which the author says will work best if it is truly voluntary. Enter fitbit and google or amazon devices to speak to users, and it should be a short time before the tracked information is not stored in raw form but as part of a model. With that, Alexa and their ilk should be able to warn us when they notice signs of medical problems before it is too late.

Those models don't exist outside of a few labs, and until they do (and are somehow focused into sellable products), the rest of us will miss out. The reams of data (still being collected) are at a higher risk of being used against us instead of for us. This book unfortunately doesn't go far enough into this topic either.

Goodreads uses one star for "did not like it" and five for "Awesome". This book comes in just under the two star category, "it was okay" - and perhaps would have rated higher upon first release.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is far more interesting than its name or description make it sound. Implications of the ideas in this book are startling, and it’s going to take me some time to sort through all of them. I am torn between feeling curious to know what type of picture data miners have developed of me and simultaneously wanting to do things to change that data to make it less accurate and less targeting. I’m not doing anything particularly radical, harmful, or illegal, but data about my current life could be interpreted very differently 100 years from now. More to the point, politicians and marketers often make assumptions about groups of people, using those assumptions to target people with ad campaigns, possible surveillance, and possible politicized messaging. I wonder if Facebook, Google, and Twitter serve different ads for me, a white, conservative, Christian woman and a close friend of mine who is black, Christian, and liberal politically. I always assumed that ads would be served based solely on the products I usually purchase, the topics of my posts, and the reviews I make of books and other products. It never occurred to me that my race, age, religion, and location within the United States might be used to shape political information on social media. I have always thought it’s strange that people would use an external things such as skin color or having a specific disability as the coalescing factor for forming a community. I am often amazed when people seem surprised to find that not all of my friends are blind and that no, I don’t know this other blind person just because they are blind and live in the same state as me. From reading this book, I guess there are more people who think like them than like me.

I plan to re-read this book soon because I know there are layers I can’t grasp all at once. I need to sit with some of these ideas for a while and figure out what I really think about all of this and how I want to respond to it.

[Jimmy Ele · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Math Intelligentsia dubbed the Numerati by Stephen Baker are modeling us humans in almost every aspect of our humanity. The book is divided into different chapters: Introduction, Worker, Shopper, Blogger, Terrorist, Lover, and Conclusion. A very interesting read that delves into the different groups of people and corporations that benefit from such information we readily give away with just a few clicks on the computer, and/or our cell phone usage among other things. The most interesting chapter for me was the lover chapter. Figuring out how to mathematically model humans according to their serotonin, dopamine, estrogen, and testosterone levels is supremely interesting. There is a great look into the websites chemistry.com as well as match.com. I recommend this book for those who want to learn more about these men behind the scenes and a nice surface look at the different mathematical modeling techniques they use and the industries that they are generating.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disapointed with this book. It's a full-length book about the use of statistical methods and data mining to model people... but there is no discussion at all of those statistical methods or data mining techniques. It's full of talk about the data that's collected, and the predictions that are or could potentially be made, but the middle bit, the way that analysis actually happens is simply not addressed.

Now, I understand that other people are not as interested in statistics as I am. I get that. However, people manage to write extremely accessible pop sci books about neurology, evolutionary biology, economics, etc - so why is statistical analysis something to be treated like a black box?

This book brings up some interesting things, but ultimately, it's just a little too fluffy.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have liked this book if the author had given more specifics. Yes, I am sure we all know by now that we are being tracked. Computers are powerful enough to sift through massive amounts of data and their results will become more and more useful as time goes on. I am about to tackle a related book called Click, which I may find more interesting!

[David Wake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting raw information - disturbing, I guess you'd say. But a little disappointing on the analysis side. Maybe the purpose of this kind of book is simply to scare you by listing all the kinds of things that you do that aren't private anymore, but I was sort of hoping to get more of a 'what should we make of this' kind of take as well.

[Ali AlGharrash · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب يشرح كيف يقوم علماء الريضيات وشركة البرمجيات بدراسة ٍاليب وانماط الحياة لدى الفرد وتحويلها لمعادلات رياضية بغية استنتاج تصرفات معينة أوسلوك معين يمكن من خلاله الإستفادة منه في توجيه الاعلانات التجارية او الحملات الإنتخابية أو توقع مرض معين وحتى توقع النزعات الإجرامية للفرد
الكتاب يناقش هذه النقطة كما يناقش ايضاً سلبية هذه الدراسات حيث انها تسبب انتهاكاً صارخاً لحرية الأفراد

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. I found bits interesting but didn't like the narrator.

[Macey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a very difficult read. The content and reading level was not the challenging part; it was the boring content. The author, Steven Baker, writes in a way that makes the fascinating topic unbearable. The book is about how mathematicians use our information to make a profile on us. He writes in a repetitive way that over explains and gives too much detail about the topic. He gave too much informations that way unnecessary. It was very hard to keep reading the book.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its perhaps to early to be writing this, seeing how I just finished the book less than a minute ago, but there was a sentence I read in Baker's conclusion that I felt summed up the whole book (or at least what I felt to be the most important). That sentence being: "This becomes true only because we let ourselves believe it." This sentence pertains to our feelings about the "Numerati" and what it is they are doing. Our feelings on invasion of privacy and the fear of what the information they gather could do to us, individually, and as a whole. The scare of such ideas represented in stories such as "1984" fuel the idea that the data accumulated will be used oppressively "...becomes true only because we let ourselves believe it." This is not to say that the Numerati should be left alone to do whatever they see fit, but that we shouldn't arrest the development of what can be accomplished through their task. Fear should not hinder development. Possibilities in this life are infinite and I view exploration as the definition of freedom. No doubt this review (and all my reviews) are not very practical to a reader wondering wether or not they should check out the book for themselves, but then its my opinion that one should be able to figure that out for themselves. I myself don't read reviews because I don't need to. It seems plain to me that a book interests you or not, and the only way to decide that is to read it and make up your own mind. And if you decide to start reading something to find out, its probably because the book is on a topic your already interested in. Maybe reviews are better for the fiction reader looking to find something in the same vein of what they have already established they like, in which case those readers won't be looking at reviews of this book anyways. This book is a window into a world that is collectively viewed as worrisome. Its informative about what is trying to be done with the mountains of data we leave, and I found it to be pleasant and calming to my own fears that in reality weren't based on anything but misguided information at random. Id suggest this book to anyone looking to be better informed on the topic, but then I suppose in writing these reviews Im really doing it for myself, to spell out how I think and feel, and also to throw it up for the Numerati to sift through in the belief that we can use such things to better understand ourselves. The frontier of research may be purely guess work, but pushing through allows us to look back at previous frontiers and help us move beyond truths that simply are, because we believe in them. To keep moving past the dogma of assumption.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with those reviewers who found this book somewhat less awesome than they initially anticipated. Coming from a math background, and as surrounded by technology as I am, I think that the book would have had more of an impact with me if I knew less about these issues already. And that's why I'm giving it such a high rating: it does a good job educating, and I like that in a book.

Stephen Baker's tone is conversational and analytical as he takes you through successive chapters that introduce us to the Numerati, the mathematicians, engineers, sociologists, and marketing gurus who are analyzing and modelling humanity. The Numerati's interests are varied, from the workplace to the bedroom. As a mathematician, I enjoy books that educate people about the real-world applications of math and remind them that it's not just a dry, dusty discipline full of formulas and equations.

The medical chapter intrigued me the most. Baker interviews several people working with Intel on technology for modelling people's behaviour at home. These machines would alert doctors when a patient deviates from regular behaviour, thus allowing doctors to know if someone's weight dramatically decreases or if an elderly patient has fallen. The potential applications of our ability to model and predict human behaviour have immense implications for improving our medical industry, which is plagued with difficulties in both Canada (go universal healthcare!) and the U.S. (with its privatized healthcare).

Baker does mention privacy concerns, but he mostly glosses over these, pointing out that there is a difference between disclosing one's "personal data" and one's "identity." I see his point. I also see why many people are concerned about the role of privacy in the Google age. I would have liked to see some more specific information on privacy--the book in general feels short. In places, it could be much more specific, expansive. But I suppose that Baker wanted to keep it light enough to attract the curious reader, and I will forgive him for that, because it was interesting and informative. I'd read a sequel.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Questo libro ha un sottotitolo che sembra stato scritto da Lina Wertmüller: "Chi sono i Signori dei numeri che controllano il nostro comportamento: cosa compriamo, come votiamo, come amiamo". Eppure chi ha scelto il titolo dell'edizione italiana non ha avuto il coraggio di lasciare intatto quello originale e scrivere "I Numerati", ma ha scelto di usare qualcosa a effetto, incurante del fatto che più che altro si parla di statistici e informatici. Ma si sa, i matematici hanno sempre una brutta nomea mentre gli statistici non se li fila nessuno e gli informatici devono essere tipi tosti. Uno potrebbe però anche passare oltre il titolo e andare sul contenuto vero e proprio, no? Ecco, sì. Ma a questo punto scopre l'altra grande pecca. Non è per nulla colpa della traduttrice, intendiamoci. Lei ha fatto un ottimo lavoro. Ma l'autore è un giornalista americano, e scrive esattamente con la stragrande maggioranza dei giornalisti anglosassoni: l'articolo, pardon il capitolo, parte sempre da una persona con cui si parla e che viene messa in relazione con il tema che si vuole trattare. Tema poi che è sempre lasciato in sospeso: capisco che anche se si volesse raccontare gli algoritmi usati da queste aziende loro non li divulgherebbero certo, ma l'impressione che si ha leggendo il libro è che ci siano delle cose bellissime, che adesso funzionano poco ma a breve rivoluzioneranno la vita. Un po' come la traduzione automatica negli anni 1950, insomma :) In definitiva, ci si può trovare qualche spunto interessante, ma non vale la pena di acquistarlo se non si è proprio appassionati di questo stile di inchieste.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been fascinated by marketing and consumer trends since reading Why We Buy by Paco Underhill several years ago. After reading The Numerati, I’m blown away by what data mining companies are doing everyday with those little bits of information we consumers leave behind every time we use our debit cards, cell phones, computers and other electronic devices.

Baker begins by showing us how much we rely on our computers and Google; even though we know we are being tracked. He tells us, “Even if you hold back your name, it’s a cinch to find you. A Carnegie Mellon University study recently showed that simply by disclosing gender, birth date, and postal zip code, 87 percent of people in the United States could be pinpointed by name,” I was hooked. (And a little scared, too!)

Chapters on work, shopping, politics, terrorism, healthcare, and even computer matchmaking services detail how pervasive information gathering is in our everyday lives. Now, the biggest question for the future is if our loss of privacy is really worth the potential gains.

Highly recommended.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Title is a clever neologism for people who engage in data mining to serve some pragmatic goal (e.g., Karl Rove micro-targeting likely-persuadable Republican voters to go to the polls; Amazon figuring out what you might like to read from what you have ordered previously; match.com correlating your profile with that of another customer with whom you might like to go out........).

Underlying process is kind of interesting but the book itself is too long and repetitive, and it was a little disconcerting how amazed the author sounded about it all. I'm not a mathematician, nor a counterterrorism agent, nor especially wired, yet most of the examples sounded very familiar to me. The vocabularly was adult-level, but the tone reminded me of a didactic piece in the kids page of the Washington Post (.....applied scientists are doing some amazing things. They can use information on what brand of tuna you buy and which facebook posts you "like" to predict with reasonable accuracy whether you would respond to a public television fundraising call!).

[Jesse]

Interesting overview of how information is being sorted, used and manipulated in the digital era and the directions that people are going to explore the possibilities. Author is somewhat optimistic about the ends to which this information will be put, while glossing over some of the bigger problems and challenges that are presented with this. Though he does provide a good example of one researcher that has already run into a 'Nobel' issue with his data manipulation technology.

As stated, while the book provides an overview, the most important thing is that the book is extensively endnoted, allowing people that an interest in more in depth reading in this area to easily explore more, using this book as a guide.

Would be very interested in a sequel in 5 years or so, picking up the stories of the people and technologies covered in this book and seeing where they went, along with coverage of the new stuff in the field.

Light on the math, so not for those interesting in the guts of how these things actually _work_ persay.

Recommended.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's impossible for me to review this without making comparisons to a very similar book I recently read: Super Crunchers by Ian Ayers.

This book was written by a liberal arts major/business writer and reads like it. That isn't a negative aspect necessarily, but if Super Crunchers (written by an economist who crunches numbers in his career) barely skimmed the math behind data mining, than The Numerati never touched it. Again, that isn't a negative, per se. It actually might be a positive for people who aren't interested in the math, they just want to know what's happening. I, however, really liked that part of Super Crunchers.

This book did address how should people who don't know math react to this changing world. While I walked away from Super Crunchers feeling like I needed to learn stastics or I would be doomed, The Numerati assured me that there are places for more art and liberal arts people in this world of statistics.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating insight into what our future is going to be. We have to forget about privacy, keeping secrets or being on our own. We are constantly watched, observed, analyzed and manipulated. Everything about us is part of various databases, accessed by different agencies with different agendas. We supply the data ourselves by using Internet, keeping blogs, being on Social Networks, going to the doctor, library, even the grocery shop. We are profiled, our next step is predicted and this is only the beginning. Statistics and applied mathematics are rulers of the world. Yes,there are a lot of positive outcomes as well - in medicine, health services and the fight against terrorism. We have to pay for our security with our freedom. This book is not a doomsday book, but it makes you think about what future you want, and are you ready to pay the price.

[Prem Balakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a nonfiction book this book was suprisingly interesting. This book talks about The Numerati or "the data crunchers" of our day and age, which would be the mathematicians, computer scientists, bankers, investers, software engineers. As a person that is very analytical, I found this book interesting to read. It goes through and describes how these people's jobs are used to figure out various things about their indirect consumers. For example, in the telemarketing industry computer scientists can track what websites you have been to to predict the future options for their product to be bought by you as a customer. With the access to your computer they learn various things about you and can figure out what you will buy. This book captured my attention in that I could it opened me to a broader view of these people and big name companies like Google, and how they go through your computer.

[Nathaniel Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting look at the emerging importance of data-mining in virtually every sphere of our economy and public life, but definitely an outsider's look. Many of the insights that Baker portrays as shocking will come as yesterday's news to anyone who a) leads anything approaching a wired life and b) has ever troubled to think for a minute about all the free services, rewards programs, etc. available to the savvy consumer... or even wondered briefly about how the now-ubiquitous "recommendation engines" work.

In short, if you're under thirty, haven't been hiding under a rock, and have at least a modicum of intelligence, buy this book for your clueless elderly relatives, but don't bother reading it.

[Noah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is rather Friedman-esque, and I mean that in the worst possible way. Baker had a germ of a thesis (and a rather obvious thesis, in my opinion), and then proceeded to work himself into a froth over it and produce 200+ pages in which he restates it over and over with increasingly strained analogies. Worse yet, the most interesting questions in this field - questions about things like changing expectations of privacy, identity, and the ways in which targeting might itself change behavior - are glossed over in a few meager paragraphs. Try one of the other trendy books on this subject instead.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't necessarily call this a bad book, but it was a disappointing one for me. It provided a survey of some of the applications of data mining in modern culture, but failed to provide any information about the mathematics - while I agree with Baker that not everyone needs to become one of the Numerati, it wouldn't hurt to give readers a few basic concepts - and gave only a cursory examination of the ethical issues involved in this kind of research. I was looking for a book that I could recommend to an older friend as an introduction to this issue, but I think I'll have to keep looking.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll post a more complete review as a blog article. But I can say that I loved the authors approach and deep dive into the people and organizations that are crunching very large databases to find behavioral patterns... of you and I!

[Hukes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Magazine-like writing and shallow attack on subjects. Not bad, but not an engrosssing book. For the casual readers who'd like to know a bit (just a bit) about what math can be used for in the internetz.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shattering here regarding how our data is collected and used, but it did make a career in such analysis seem more appealing. Also, it made me wonder when/if I'd start getting more penalized as a consumer for being thrifty.

[السيد العلوي · Rating 3 out of 5]

قرأته، وأتصوره كتابًا مهمًا، فهو يتحدث عن مدى التعقيد الثقافي الذي أحدثته الطفرات التكنلوجية الهائلة وخصوصًا في ميدان النشاط التواصلي، فالمجتمعات مقيدة بثقافة التواصل العصرية، ولا تتمكن من التحرر منها بالرغم مما يكشفه الكاتب في كتابه (الرقميون).. أنصح بقراءة الكتاب