If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future
E556111
"If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" is a historical nonfiction book by Jill Lepore that examines an early data analytics company and its pioneering—and troubling—role in the development of political prediction, targeted advertising, and surveillance capitalism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5913389 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Context triple: [Jill Lepore, notableWork, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future]
-
A.
A Brief History of the Future
A Brief History of the Future is a book by Mike Moore that explores potential social, political, and technological developments shaping humanity’s long-term future.
-
B.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires is a nonfiction book that examines the recurring cycle of openness and monopolistic control in communications and information industries throughout modern history.
-
C.
The Future of Ideas
The Future of Ideas is a book by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig that examines how excessive intellectual property regulation threatens innovation, creativity, and the openness of the digital commons.
-
D.
The Master Switch
The Master Switch is a nonfiction book by Tim Wu that explores how communication industries tend to cycle between open innovation and closed, monopolistic control.
-
E.
As We May Think
As We May Think is a seminal 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush that envisioned hypertext-like information systems and profoundly influenced the development of modern computing and the internet.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Target entity description: "If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" is a historical nonfiction book by Jill Lepore that examines an early data analytics company and its pioneering—and troubling—role in the development of political prediction, targeted advertising, and surveillance capitalism.
-
A.
A Brief History of the Future
A Brief History of the Future is a book by Mike Moore that explores potential social, political, and technological developments shaping humanity’s long-term future.
-
B.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires is a nonfiction book that examines the recurring cycle of openness and monopolistic control in communications and information industries throughout modern history.
-
C.
The Future of Ideas
The Future of Ideas is a book by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig that examines how excessive intellectual property regulation threatens innovation, creativity, and the openness of the digital commons.
-
D.
The Master Switch
The Master Switch is a nonfiction book by Tim Wu that explores how communication industries tend to cycle between open innovation and closed, monopolistic control.
-
E.
As We May Think
As We May Think is a seminal 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush that envisioned hypertext-like information systems and profoundly influenced the development of modern computing and the internet.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
history book ⓘ |
| addresses |
origins of surveillance capitalism
ⓘ
political consulting industry ⓘ relationship between technology and liberal democracy ⓘ |
| author | Jill Lepore NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| comparesTo | contemporary big data companies ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizes |
manipulation of voters through data
ⓘ
unregulated data collection ⓘ |
| depicts |
intersection of technology and democracy
ⓘ
rise of predictive analytics ⓘ |
| explores |
corporate influence on elections
ⓘ
early forms of algorithmic governance ⓘ origins of targeted political messaging ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
early use of computers in political campaigns
ⓘ
ethical implications of data analytics ⓘ history of data-driven politics ⓘ voter behavior modeling ⓘ |
| genre | historical nonfiction ⓘ |
| hasCentralCompany | Simulmatics Corporation NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasForm |
audiobook
ⓘ
ebook ⓘ print ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
readers interested in history of computing ⓘ readers interested in technology and politics ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| narrativeStyle |
archival research-based
ⓘ
historical narrative ⓘ |
| portrays | Simulmatics Corporation as a precursor to modern tech firms NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publisher | Liveright Publishing Corporation NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subject |
Cold War era
ⓘ
Simulmatics Corporation NERFINISHED ⓘ United States politics ⓘ behavioral science ⓘ computational social science ⓘ data analytics ⓘ political prediction ⓘ surveillance capitalism ⓘ targeted advertising ⓘ |
| timePeriodCovered |
1950s
ⓘ
1960s ⓘ early computer age ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Description of subject: "If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" is a historical nonfiction book by Jill Lepore that examines an early data analytics company and its pioneering—and troubling—role in the development of political prediction, targeted advertising, and surveillance capitalism.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.