Interestingly, the early days of deep learning also followed this pattern. Some context [1].

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/hoo6m8/d_m...

It's odd that this article doesn't mentioned Celevity, which is definitely one of the big players in this field.

"The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society" by Alfred Crosby is another great book on this subject.