A fascinating talk about how machine learning algorithms built in social media are building a Brave New World. For those who haven't read it, Brave New World proposes a world in which people are controlled by pleasure and distraction, unlike in 1984, where people are controlled by surveillance and propaganda. She brings up how Facebook and Youtube and the like all use algorithms using data such as our browsing habits, to sell us products or feed us more information. For example, someone who likes Bernie Sanders on FB, might receive more content about Bernie Sanders and other progressives on FB. On my own FB, I liked Bernie Sanders and just recently FB's given me the page to a Senatorial candidate running against Angus King in 2018 as a progressive; they have not given me the page for any conservative candidate running against King. We look at these algorithms and a question must be asked; what happens when the state gets a hold of the persuasive power of machine learning algorithms like this? What happens when the state uses it to control the information we see? What happens when it stops being about trying to sell a pair of boots and trying to convince you to vote a certain way? (which, it already does, but not at the behest of the state.) Will we even see it coming? And can we stop it?