Steve Baker: the Numerati November 19, 2008

Math isn't just for nerds anymore. As Steve Baker's new book The Numerati points out, applied mathematics is all around us. From the Las Vegas surveillance guru whose methods for catching casino cheaters are now being used to root out terrorists, to the anti-spam researcher who realized that the algorithms he was using to predict e-mail spam could also predict the mutations of the AIDS virus, the book is a can't-put-it-down look at the rise of the Numerati (a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists who are using the data we produce to change the way we think, and ultimately, the way we behave). These Numerati are understanding, profiling, and predicting us as shoppers, as patients, as voters, as workers, as lovers, even as potential terrorists.