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If Then

How One Data Company Invented the Future

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About this listen

 Radio 4's Book of the Week

A Financial Times Book of the Year

Shortlisted for the 2020 Financial Times / McKinsey Business Book of the Year

Longlisted for the National Book Award

'The story of the original data science hucksters of the 1960s is hilarious, scathing and sobering - what you might get if you crossed Mad Men with Theranos' David Runciman

The Simulmatics Corporation, founded in 1959, mined data, targeted voters, accelerated news, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge--decades before Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Cambridge Analytica. Silicon Valley likes to imagine it has no past but the scientists of Simulmatics are the long-dead grandfathers of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

Borrowing from psychological warfare, they used computers to predict and direct human behavior, deploying their "People Machine" from New York, Cambridge, and Saigon for clients that included John Kennedy's presidential campaign, the New York Times, Young & Rubicam, and, during the Vietnam War, the Department of Defence.

In If Then, distinguished Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer, Jill Lepore, unearths from the archives the almost unbelievable story of this long-vanished corporation, and of the women hidden behind it. In the 1950s and 1960s, Lepore argues, Simulmatics invented the future by building the machine in which the world now finds itself trapped and tormented, algorithm by algorithm.

'A person can't help but feel inspired by the riveting intelligence and joyful curiosity of Jill Lepore. Knowing that there is a mind like hers in the world is a hope-inducing thing' George Saunders, Man Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo

'An authoritative account of the origins of data science, a compelling political narrative of America in the Sixties, a poignant collective biography of a generation of flawed men' David Kynaston

'If Then is simultaneously gripping and absolutely terrifying' Amanda Foreman©2020 Jill Lepore Data Science History & Culture Technology & Society Technology New York Socialism Liberalism Business Capitalism

Critic reviews

Lepore is a brilliant writer. It's a dream to read. (Diane Coyle)
All stars
Most relevant
Serious History. Superb storytelling. Surprising history of social network analysis, predictive analytics, MIT Media Lab, ...

Serious History. Superb storytelling.

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The subject matter of this book could not be more timely - the first attempts during the 1950’s and 60’s to use computers to identify groups of people whose behaviour could be predicted and influenced. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram had to await the arrival of the world wide web, but the ideas are not new, nor the problem of increasingly fragmented electorate. Five stars for content and relevance. If only Audible had commissioned a recording from the quality of vocal artists the material deserves. I am a great admirer of Prof Lepore, but many listeners may find her voice suffers in comparison to professional vocal artists.

Fascinating and important history about the birth of social media

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This is a fascinating story, particularly in the context of recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica. Unfortunately it's let down rather by a poor reading - the author reads out quotes (of which there are many) in a strange gabble, which makes them rather hard to understand. It's a shame, but still well worth a read, just maybe better on paper.

Fascinating story, but poor performance

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