Show Notes
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631496107?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/If-Then%3A-How-the-Simulmatics-Corporation-Invented-the-Future-Jill-Lepore.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/if-then-how-the-simulmatics-corporation-invented/id1639273620?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=If+Then+How+the+Simulmatics+Corporation+Invented+the+Future+Jill+Lepore+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/1631496107/
#SimulmaticsCorporation #PeopleMachine #ColdWarbehavioralscience #Votermicrotargeting #Vietnampacificationresearch #IfThen
Jill Lepore’s If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future is a work of narrative history about an obscure American data-analysis company founded in 1959. Drawing on archival research, Lepore follows Simulmatics as it tried to use computers, polling, psychology, and demographic categories to predict and influence human behavior. Its work ranged from electoral strategy and advertising to news analysis and Pentagon-funded research during the Vietnam War. The book challenges the assumption that data mining, microtargeting, and algorithmic governance began with the internet or Silicon Valley. Instead, it locates important technical ambitions and ethical failures in the Cold War, when social scientists and corporate promoters claimed that populations could be modeled as manageable systems. Lepore treats Simulmatics neither as a straightforward technological triumph nor as a mere historical curiosity. Its uneven results, inflated promises, and political consequences form the basis for a critical history of predictive analytics and behavioral data science.