I find it hard not to wonder how many interactions like this one, satirised so superbly by Silicon Valley, lie behind the tendency of digital elites to pontificate about social trends. On the one hand, data science emerges as a powerful means of generating knowledge of social life, building on past developments while becoming something distinct. On the other hand, a cultural climate which inflates and incentivises self-styled visionaries and thought leaders can imbue vacuous musings with epistemic authority. The organic sociology of Silicon Valley is a strange and complex beast.
Mark Carrigan 