Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-252) and index.

Bomb parts: what is a model? -- Shell shocked: my journey of disillusionment -- Arms race: going to college -- Propaganda machine: online advertising -- Civilian casualties: justice in the age of big data -- Ineligible to serve: getting a job -- Sweating bullets: on the job -- Collateral damage: landing credit -- No safe zone: getting insurance -- The targeted citizen: civic life.

A former Wall Street quantitative analyst sounds an alarm on mathematical modeling, a pervasive new force in society that threatens to undermine democracy and widen inequality. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they're wrong. Welcome to the dark side of Big Data. Tracing the arc of a person's life, O'Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These 'weapons of math destruction' score teachers and students, sort r�esum�es, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health. O'Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use.