Technocrats operating with all data and no history are less tractable than evil, as evil almost by definition has a goal, an objective. Even if it insane, apocalyptic or deleterious to human health, something with a goal can be resisted and defeated.

Big Data’s ahistorical adherents have the “truth” in the data and the obvious-to-them veracity of their algorithms on their side, which in their minds removes the need for any more nuanced or contextual understanding. They are not evil because they do not even have the cultural or historical comprehension to proceed this far; in that, they are like children with a dangerous weapon they see as a toy: goalless but casually destructive.

Technocratic rule by misapplied data science shows exactly why we need the humanities now more than we ever have.