The Simulmatics Corporation was a U.S. data science firm founded in 1959 that used

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

s to target voters and consumers. One of its leading figures was Ithiel de Sola Pool. Professor of American History at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American ...

wrote a book about the Simulmatics Corporation, titled ''If Then'', in 2020, and recorded an audio version broadcast by

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in 2021. The political novel '' The 480'' contains a fictional treatment of the Simulmatics Corporation's activities.

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