5 - Social Pasts

Summary

Along with the masses of information that Alphabet is collecting on specific individuals, it is currently digitizing existing, and creating entirely new, data sets of broad social relevance. As a result, and as the first section of this chapter outlines, Alphabet is contributing to a world in which the problem is not too little information, but too much. The chapter then proposes that those that want to use this information to make sense of, or construct, our social pasts, can employ one of two approaches – termed the massive and mélange approach to historical analysis respectively – to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by our ever-growing archives. Having done so, the chapter concludes by emphasizing that, by creating and maintaining this ‘great library’, Alphabet is already in a strong position from which to decide – like the ongoing winner of some never-ending war – who can, and cannot, write history.