The term 'super crunchers' is the title of a book by Ian Ayres (picture). It refers to the phenomenon of  how large databases are helping us make decisions everyday, especially on the Internet. For example, on Amazon, there is a function called 'Customers who bought this item also bought this item'. It keeps a record of the purchasing history of consumers and uses it to target new customers. You can see evidence of super crunching on a lot of different types of websites from online radio stations to dating sites. It is changing the way we communicate and make decisions.

Related lessons

• The Internet