Stephen Baker: The Numerati (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · advertising, algorithm, blogging, computing, data, data mining, internet, mathematics, privacy, psychology, social media, surveillance, technology
An urgent look at how a global math elite is predicting and altering our behavior — at work, at the mall, and in bed.
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 twenty-first century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. 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 to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists — and lovers. The implications are vast. Our privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor and measure our every move (then reward or punish us). Politicians can find the swing voters among us, by plunking us all into new political groupings with names like “Hearth Keepers” and “Crossing Guards.” It can sound scary. 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. Surprising, enlightening, and deeply relevant, The Numerati shows how a powerful new endeavor — the mathematical modeling of humanity — will transform every aspect of our lives.
Publisher Mariner Books, Boston/New York, 2008
ISBN 0618784608, 9780618784608
256 pages
review (Marcus du Sautoy, The Guardian)
review (Rob Walker, The New York Times)
review (Tim Walker, The Independent)
Critical Art Ensemble: Action is Addiction (1992)
Filed under pamphlet | Tags: · addiction, capitalism, consumerism, drugs, health care, medicine, power
A pointed attack on the addiction industry and it’s methods. The pamphlet was placed in hospitals and addition centers. Commissioned be Muranishi/Lederman Gallery, NY, for the Culture Bites exhibition.
Self-published, NY, 1992
via ArtistBooksOnline.org
Critical Art Ensemble: NovaText (1990)
Filed under artist publishing | Tags: · criticism, poetry, text
The texts “The Critical Function”, “Unknown Fact Number One”, “Always Already”, “The Funest Experiment”, “Like A Big Dog”, and “This Will Be the Death of Chit-Chat” are letterpressed onto thin, white handmade papers. These lift, like veils, to reveal the “hidden texts” and “annotations” to each piece printed on a sturdier green paper.
Second edition
Self-published, Brooklyn, NY, April 1990
No rights reserved
via ArtistBooksOnline.org