In all, his outfit required nearly two thousand man-years of research and development, eight barrels of oil, and sixteen patent and trademark infring… - Daniel Suarez

Storing data is so cheap it's essentially free, so data brokers record everything in the hopes that it will have value to someone. The data is aggregated by third parties, linked to individual identities, and sold like any other consumer data. It's not a conspiracy. It's an economy, but an economy these people know nothing about. They're tagged like sheep and have as much say in the matter as sheep.

Instead of adapting, their leaders clung to power and strove instead to be the last ones to starve to death. The Mayan civilization in South America did the same, and I expect our own civilization will do likewise.

One did not accidentally graduate from top-tier schools. One strove to get in and to maintain grades once there, and to do that, one usually needed to be a master at conformity. To excel in all the accepted conventions. No, the truly different thinkers often went unnoticed.