Psychohistory

Often when I hear people talk about their concerns with certain information based companies, or even the government, knowing everything about them, I immediately think of Asimov's Foundation novels and the fictional science of psychohistory, which could predict broad social outcomes but not individual behavior.  You know, like how statistical methods often don't work on small sets of data (or so I'm told).

This is bullshit!  They have a goddamn GPS in my phone, not to mention all the other liberties they can take with my data, and they still can't get it right.

Maybe it's like the "stop" button in Tue space ships in Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan.  The button doesn't do anything, it's just there to make people feel better by making them think they have a choice.  Or perhaps more like ancient Chinese authors who would put deliberate spelling errors into their work so the reader could feel smug about discovering them (for all I know that's also bullshit, I read it in a computer magazine of all places).  By getting my activity so grossly wrong, I'm supposed to be reassured that my information overlords don't really care one iota about the specifics of what I do, just so long as I click some of the advertisements.

And people tell me I think too much.  Harumph!