I recently saw an illuminating video about how Robert Mercer, a billionaire quantitative wall st. trader and computer scientist, not only backed Trump with $15 million, but madeover his whole team. Mercer's analytics companies, which make him money faster than Warren Buffet, were set to the task of winning the election.
Not to mention Peter Thiel.
Now, we don't know how they did it, but I can only imagine that with deep learning, etc, this is only going to get worse.
Shameless plug for the video. I doubt it'll get traction on HN, but it was 100% a wakeup call for me.
I suspect that it's fun to read and write about new tech applied to Presidential elections but that the new doesn't actually matter more than the same old. If you wanted a really simple model to predict Presidential elections, this would be it: incumbents get re-elected, and then after 8 years American voters are sick enough of one party to try the other party again. One-term presidents are rare.
Maybe you remember the idea of a "permanent Republican majority" from GWB's first term. That wasn't very permanent at all. Maybe you remember the post-2012 fear among conservatives that demographic changes had given Democrats a permanent lock on the presidency. That was short lived too.
seriously though, whether or not you are concerned about the role of data technology in elections, check out that documentary clip I linked to. it helped me peel back the curtain on the wizard of trump.
Not to mention Peter Thiel.
Now, we don't know how they did it, but I can only imagine that with deep learning, etc, this is only going to get worse.
Shameless plug for the video. I doubt it'll get traction on HN, but it was 100% a wakeup call for me.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13719646
Now I recognize it for what it is. Its a techno-hyper-capitalist power grab.