In a lecture at Google that garnered enthusiastic applause, Pentland flattered the audience by signaling that the digital cognoscenti will easily accept the obsolescence of the individual as a necessary fate. “What about free will?” he asked the audience in Mountain View. “That may not have occurred to you, but that’s a traditional thing to ask.” He went on to explain that most human behavior—from political views to spending choices to the music that people listen to—is predicted by “what’s cool to do… exposure to what other people do.” Many people reject this idea, he noted, because “it’s not
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