Google scares the crap out of me. From LifeHacker:
Share ThisGoogle chief executive says that in 5 years time, it should be able to tell you what job to take and what to do on your day off. Shortly thereafter, none of us will need actual minds of our own.
I saw that too. Very strange and disturbing stuff. I think I will unplug in 5 years if that’s the future for Google. Welcome to 1984 compliments of the GooglePlex.
I hadn’t seen that, but now that I have, well, my relationship with Google is about to change rapidly.
between this and the post i put up last week on Taking Place, i really don’t want to have anything to do with the internet… or cell phones. but really, what can you expect from something that was conceived by the Dept of Defense? i feel like those in power are creating something far more advanced than fascism. it is certainly reminiscent of Orwell’s view of totalitarian socialism.
I know this is troubling for us that use the internet and google but since only a fraction of the world’s population has regular access to the internet (i.e. enough for an algorhythm [sp?] to capture) deliberate control (as opposed to the kind of passive control represented by Google [we help know what's best!]) will need to increase, right?
i’m not quite sure i understand you question, Jay, but considering the connections between Google (and other online companies like MySpace, Facebook, etc) and governments, i see it as a piece of a larger plan for deliberate control. The U.S. intelligence agencies are using data mining (which is what Google does… even they say they are not in the search engine business) to profile as many people as they can using their “catch a terrorist” algorithms.
While it is true that only a small percentage of ppl globally use the internet, a majority of folks in the US now have regular access to it. Which is why data mining via the internet is largely used to profile “domestic terrorists”.
We are also starting to see more private and government funding being funneled into projects that provide computer and internet access in developing countries (i think we’ll see even more of it now with the creation of the $100 laptop that is crank-powered). The U.S. government seems to want to know everything about everyone. And since their Total Information Awareness program was shut down via democracy, their best chance at getting all that information is through the private sector… hence me calling the U.S. gov’t fascist, for anyone that thinks i’m just throwing the term around willy nilly.
I joke about just leaving technology behind, but i realize that the real answer is to change who controls technology.
My question is this:
The majority of people in the world do not have access to the internet. So the U.S.’s efforts (and Google’s) to know “everything about everyone” will need to rely on more old fashioned methods that Google’s advanced data mining activities wouldn’t it?
I was struck by the conclusion in your piece that what ails the U.S. will somehow happen all over the world…..
Ah. Well let me first state that i don’t think Google really wants to know everything about everyone. Google is data mining for a different reason than the DoD. The Google CEO said something along the lines of “we aren’t a search company, we are in the ad revenue business.” So they are trying to find out as much about ppl so that advertisers will feel like their ads will be better directed at target audiences. So they would likely have not reason to mine data about ppl who are in the consumerist demographic, which right now is the majority of the world.
So yes, if the US gov’t really wanted to know everything about everyone, then they would need to rely on more low-tech methods (or, as i said, push for more technological equality). But i’m not sure they really want to know everything about everyone at this point in time. Right now it seems like they are just interested in using such technology for domestic data mining.
I think my wording in my last comment was confusing because i went back and forth about talking globally and domestically without differentiating between the two. Sorry about that.
looks like the EU is skeptical of Google, too…
EU Data-Privacy Officials Probing Google