A tour through the algorithms that change our lives

The book takes a look at the rise of computer-generated approaches to the flood of personal data being gathered on us daily and takes a hard look at the unintended consequences of relying on them uncritically. The approach is anecdotal rather than scholarly in order to reach a wide audience. The reader does not need to know data science to grasp the ideas presented. In a concluding section, there are some suggestions on how to lessen the ill effects we have seen, and in an afterword a brief discussion of political polling breakdowns in the 2016 election.