The sensing is currently far easier than the real-time actuation and automated decision-making, but the latter is also getting better constantly.

FORBES: Can You Use Big Data? The Litmus Test

Mr Ayres predicts that automated decision-making will soon see other professional jobs going the same way as that of the bank-loan officer, once well-paid and responsible and now a mere call-centre operative, paid peanuts to parrot the words a computer prompts.

ECONOMIST: Automated decision-making

But it presents a convincing and disturbing vision of a future in which everyday decision-making is increasingly automated, and the role of human judgment restricted to providing input to formulae.

ECONOMIST: Automated decision-making