Seattle was pretty hellish when I lived there and now it sounds like it’s getting worse.

I work in tech but I don’t like most people in my field. Funny how I was not a jock in high school and wanted nothing to do with those people, but as I get older I find I have more in common with those types than fellow tech geeks. (Though misogyny runs high in both cultures.) As much as I have in common with anyone, I guess.

The reason is that jock types don’t need to constantly prove their masculinity and such. With geeks it’s a constant attempt to rectify past rejection and “prove” to everyone (that is, other geeks, the only people who give a shit) their manhood and how they aren’t losers anymore.

I just want no part of that. None.

You know what? I like women and I like hanging out with them. Having women around makes everyone less dumb. And tech geeks are like kryptonite to women. And for good reason, for the most part.

As for Seattle, I wanted nothing to do with you while I was there and now it sounds like you are even more abominable than before.

This is why I dread the incipient new world.

“If you take two people with the same job and circumstances, like whether they have kids, five years later the one who had the higher G.P.A. is more likely to pay a debt,” said Paul Gu, Upstart’s co-founder and head of product. “It’s not whether you can pay. It’s a question of how important you see your obligation.”

That is most likely strictly true; however, there are usually good reasons people have lower GPAs. They have less money and therefore have to work more and study less. They have other commitments such as a sick family member. They themselves have a chronic illness. Etc.

The practice of using algorithms that “judge” people’s character is absolutely no different at all in any way than phrenology and physiognomy. This is witchcraft via Big Data, an incantation uttered over a steaming data cauldron out of which emanates some predetermined expulsion of pseudo-truth and faux-insight.

Even if — and that is a big if as I don’t believe most of their data and am quite sure they don’t understand it themselves — these techniques work, is this ever-increasing surveillance how we wish to proceed as a society? Is it really what is best for everyone?

For engineeritis infectees like Chu, it doesn’t matter. It’s what he thinks the data is telling him, never mind if he should even be asking such degrading questions, or allowed to even possess such information in the first place.

This sort of thing will also soon be used in employment background checks too, I have no doubt at all.