LSE Public Lecture
Date: Thursday 13 September 2007
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Ian Ayres
Chair: Professor Chrisanthi Avgerou
Today's best and brightest organisations are analysing massive databases at lightning speed to provide greater insights into human behaviour. From internet sites like Google and Amazon that know your tastes better than you do, to a physician's diagnosis and your child's education, to boardrooms and government agencies, a new breed of decision makers--call them super crunchers--are calling the shots. And they are delivering staggeringly accurate results. Want to know the value of a particular wine or whether the price of an airline ticket will go up or down before you buy? Super crunchers have the answers. In this brave new world of equation versus expertise, intuition and experience are often losing out. In this lecture, Ian Ayres will talk about the benefits and risks of Super Crunching, who loses and who wins, and how Super Crunching can be used to help, not manipulate us.
This event marks the launch of Ian Ayres new book Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart (John Murray September 2007).
Ian Ayres is an econometrician and lawyer, is the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School, and a professor at Yale's School of Management. He is a regular commentator on public radio's Marketplace and a columnist for Forbes magazine. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, and has written eight books and more than a hundred articles.
This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043.
Media queries: please contact the Press Office if you would like to reserve a press seat or have a media query about this event, email pressoffice@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 7060.