Microsoft’s patent returns us to Planck, Meyer, and Skinner and the viewpoint of the Other-One. In their physics-based representation of human behavior, anomalies are the “accidents” that are called freedom but actually denote ignorance; they simply cannot yet be explained by the facts. Planck/Meyer/Skinner believed that the forfeit of this freedom was the necessary price to be paid for the “safety” and “harmony” of an anomaly-free society in which all processes are optimized for the greater good. Skinner imagined that with the correct technology of behavior, knowledge could preemptively eliminate anomalies, driving all behavior toward preestablished parameters that align with social norms and objectives.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 1315