There are, of course, those who say that this big-data psychometric neurosociological element had nothing to do with the Trump win. What do you think? Twig from this quote from Cambridge Analytica’s own boast on their website on November 9 and go from there:
“We are thrilled that our revolutionary approach to data-driven communications played such an integral part in President-elect Donald Trump’s extraordinary win,” said Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica. “It demonstrates the huge impact that the right blend of cutting-edge data science, new technologies, and sophisticated communication strategies can have.”
The Rise of the Weaponized AI Propaganda Machine — Scout: Science Fiction + Journalism — Medium https://medium.com/join-scout/the-rise-of-the-weaponized-ai-propaganda-machine-86dac61668b#.7r0en8xp7
Cambridge Analytica Congratulates President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence
https://cambridgeanalytica.org/news/pressrelease/1293
““We have a massive database of 4-5,000 data points on every adult in America,” Alexander Nix, CA’s chief executive, cheerily told me. This sounds weird, if not creepy. Indeed, when I first encountered CA a year ago, I initially wondered if they were cranks. But CA has built a business serving commercial and political clients.”
NOTE: Much of this comes from Facebook polls and such. Caveat emptor.
The Data That Turned the World Upside Down – Motherboard https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-our-likes-helped-trump-win
Cambridge Analytica | Political revolution: How big data won the US presidency for Donald Trump https://cambridgeanalytica.org/news/press/1465
How Donald Trump utilized big data to win the US presidential elections http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/political-revolution-how-big-data-won-us-presidency-donald-trump-1602269
Who’s Your Data? ( on Fragments From Floyd)  from January 2014 contains this astounding quote, now much less far-fetched that a mere three years ago:
The big data revolution, as it matures from data collection to data interpretation to data-driven implementation across all aspects of human existence, will wield an impact on humanity’s future course that is no less revolutionary than the coming of the spoken and then the written word.
Featured image found in media archives. I confess I put the Nook in the hands of the damsel in the dark-peach dress.
The company has a product to sell, but I believe the Trump win would have happened without big data targeting. The victory was due to an extremely poor campaign by an extremely poor opposing candidate. It didn’t take much smarts to target mid-West states that were critical to victory, states which were essentially ignored by his opponent.
The product being sold is yours and my “behavioral profile” crunched in the most powerful computers with political leverage for conservative candidates only in mind–as far as Cambridge Analytica is involved. And however much intrusion this kind of guidance might have provided this time around, it will only get much much worse. I think it would be foolish now to underestimate the potential power of this technology coupled with the willingness to manipulate, prevaricate and subjugate.
Big Data could never do the damage without us humans: “the willingness to manipulate, prevaricate and subjugate” is the real danger!
Big Data combined with AI is a real concern. When AI is perfected with the means to implement its own will, then anything could happen, likely for the worse of humanity. Smart people are working feverishly to create God.