5. The term social physics originates in the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte, who preceded Planck in his programmatic vision of a scientific approach to the study of society that would equal the precision of the natural sciences. In the 1830s Comte wrote the following: “Now that the human mind has founded celestial physics, terrestrial physics… and organic physics… it only remains to complete the system of observational sciences by the foundation of social physics.” See Auguste Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy, ed. Frederick Ferré (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1988), 13.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 2649