I’m increasingly thinking that targeted ads are eerily similar to Isaac Asimov psychohistory[0]. E.g. you cannot reliably predict individual behavior, but with

I’m increasingly thinking that targeted ads are eerily similar to Isaac Asimov psychohistory[0]. E.g. you cannot reliably predict individual behavior, but with right|enough data you can reliably predict how a large enough population will act. This is why individually we often feel that they’re off the mark, or we’re thrifty enough to ignore the ads or political or other targeting. But like others have pointed out, data is out there, and ‘they’ have infinite tries to get it right. And more importantly, it works already today. And it’s impacting everyone, so as an individuals, we also get impacted in indirect and subtle ways when e.g. friend of ours raves about new toy she bought without even realizing that she chose this product over the other because of all the ads that she never clicked. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional)