Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
For some reason, this morning I wound up reading this article about Google, published six years ago in the London Review of Books. John Lanchester concludes--and remember, this was in 2006:
Putting all this together, we reach the conclusion that, on the one hand, Google is cool. On the other hand, Google has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy.
And, why, goodness--that's just what it did! If I'd really grasped this, I probably would have spent the past six years differently.
The best historical analogy for where Google is today probably comes from the time when the railroads were being built. Everyone knew that trains and railways would change the world, but no one predicted the invention of suburbs. Google, and the increased flow of information on which it rides and from which it benefits, is the railway. I don’t think we’ve yet seen the first suburbs.
I think we're beginning to see the suburbs--and they look horrible to me.
While many conservatives are wondering whether the sexual revolution was overall bad for women, I'm much more concerned that Google--and the Internet, generally--have destroyed the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy, with consequences that have certainly been more deleterious to my happiness than the sexual revolution.
I have an ominous feeling about what the death of publishing and newspapers really means, a feeling that may not entirely be connected to the catastrophe it represents for me, personally, although it's hard to say.
As for the death of privacy, I'm dead certain we'll all live to regret that.
What do you think--was the Internet a big mistake?
***
Update: Thanks, E.J.! We love you!
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Comments:
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
The death of privacy goes well beyond this.
Oct '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Hi. I write software for a living. My immediate reaction to this is:
"Google is trying to map my network so it can figure out which searches came from which computer, so it can offer more relevant results per-browser, which correlates nicely with per-user. Cool!"
Hmm. An entity with a demonstrated ability to index and analyze petabytes of information across the world, in multiple languages, has intelligence agency contracts! Why on earth would that be? :-)
I'm reminded of people freaking out over the NSA asking IBM to change the S-boxes in its Vulcan cipher that became DES. Turns out the NSA was strengthening DES against differential cryptanalysis. "Conspiracy theory" is indeed the right phrase here.
Mar '12
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
I grew up in a small town. Never in the history of that town has there been a bookstore, and before the internet, I had to buy my books from the the library book sale, which reflected the tastes of the locals, or borrow from the library (same problem). For someone like me, with unusual, niche tastes, the internet is a huge blessing. If I still had to pay full retail for books, instead of being about to find any books I want secondhand at a steep discount, I'd have to cut my reading to a fraction.
The internet means my husband can talk to his family weekly, despite their being in Malaysia.
I spent the better part of 4 years being ill, and the internet saved my sanity; it was often my only social contact for months at a stretch.
The internet has allowed me to developed my skill in knitting beyond anything I could have locally; I surpass my grandmother in skill. She has been knitting for 70 years.
The internet gives me access to like minded people, and I grew up so painfully different from my classmates that I see this for the blessing it is.
Oct '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
And this is worse than a particular set of information being presented, complete with "correct" interpretation, via newspapers or magazines or the classroom how, exactly? I hope you aren't laboring under the illusion that this precious "knowledge," so obviously distinct from "information," springs Athena-like from the head of some Zeus we all have access to.
Mar '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
It has indeed. The internet is merely the most recent and radical incarnation of a certain form of the Enlightenment faith in the "more general diffusion of knowledge". In fact, precisely because of this the internet reminds us of the conundrum I stated earlier and reminds us that it remains salient and is not resolved and cannot be dismissed.
It makes the consideration of it as pressing in our time as it was at the beginning and at the emergence of the printing press, which is to say more evident to us than it may have been for some many years past.
Nov '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Here's the reverse: I have a bag of books (novels) that somebody gave me thinking I might want to read them. They are so horrible and trashy to me that I have had the bag sitting, gathering dust, trying to get up the nerve to just throw them away. Also, for instance I rarely buy hard/paperback political books because they are old one year later. It's nice to be able to choose keepers and not add more stuff to my house. I think the internet is like all other human inventions: as good or bad as the humans using it, and change is hard. While we would rather just do our thing and not bother with the selling/marketing aspect of our product, the internet has been a great boon to our business, and we are pretty sure we would not have made it through the recession without it.
Dec '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
NEWSFLASH 1436
Scribes everywhere in angry protest. That mad man Johannes Goggleberg..er Gutenberg has forced his monsterous invention upon the unsuspecting world. It is destroying the art of Calligraphy everywhere.
The combined Catholic monastic orders have written (and I mean written) a letter in protest. The Gaon of Vilna has written a treatise entitled "The Fall of Lish Ma".
A snide young jerk with printers ink all over him was heard to say "Gee, I think its a little late now!!!"
Regards,
Jim
Mar '12
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Also, am I the only one who likes the suburbs? It seems far superior to the previous method we had for dealing with large populations that needed access to a city. Do we really want to go back to living in tenements?
Oct '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
I neglected to also say:
Great!
Wonderful!
Thank God!
No one can possibly be responsible for my privacy but me in the first place, so I can't count this as a negative.
So perhaps part of the "problem" is that those of us who are, shall we say, very committed fans of decentralization see these "awful" consequences as, in fact, highly desirable outcomes. I'd love to see those wailing about privacy do something about it. Maybe I need to slap an "Ask me how!" bumper sticker on my posts, or something.
Nov '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: . . .
What do you think--was the Internet a big mistake?
Of course it was.
So were Bacon, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, and all the rest of modernity . . . but hey, whacha gonna do about it now?
If you think I'm kidding, just wait until the human genetic manipulation biz gets going good and see what kind of beautiful monstrosities can be created in the name of reproductive freedom.
Let's put it this way: You won't recognize your grandchildren . . . as human beings . . . and that's because they really won't be.
Kass said, "Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration, for eugenic and psychic 'enhancement,' for wholesale redesign. In leading laboratories, academic and industrial, new creators are confidently amassing their powers and quietly honing their skills, while on the street their evangelists are zealously prophesying a posthuman future."
Okay, I'm going back to my corner now.
Edited on April 1, 2012 at 10:14pmMar '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
The answer is no, it is not evidently worse. In general, I think it is better. But that it is better does not mean it is perfect, or unproblematic. Our skepticism toward the MSM "correct" opinion is warranted, but we should be awake to the fact that the internet does not simply provide us unvarnished truth either.
As for an example of the difference between information and knowledge, Paul, I think you're being unnecessarily obtuse here. Surely, we can both acknowledge that there is a difference between searching for something on Wikipedia in a one-off search and a career spent engrossed in a particular field. Or between a youtube video of someone conducting a car repair and the ability to conduct the repair yourself.
While I'm exaggerating to make the point: we're increasingly blind to the differences.
Apr '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Ah you darn lovable luddites!
Always technology is a grave mistake, what have we done now to our selves, if only we had stayed pure and noble savages hunting and gathering for a living surely that was Eden. Bunk! Life in the past was terrible. It was worse for everyone on all levels. You worked hard and had very little to show for it, and you died early. Technology is the great path forward. It has made our lives better in every way. If one considers its imperfections just remember the old way of doing things also had flaws often more terrible ones than the current system.
Jan '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
I'm with Paul Snively on this one, except for one caveat.
There's a distinction between information versus the conclusions you draw from it. Assembling vast amounts of data doesn't necessarily mean you've increased knowledge, and certainly not wisdom.
We've multiplied our ability to gather data, but it pays to be skeptical about the "knowledge" that people claim to derive from it. Gathering information and analyzing it are two different skills. We've improved data gathering, but data analysis is still in its infancy.
Mar '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Undoubtedly. But all of the heinous consequences that follow have their origin in the suspicion of the private that I mentioned. They follow from the sense that the private is secretive, and that the secretive is necessarily bad--"what aren't you willing to show us?" What begins as a kind of ostracism, when coupled with other developing powers of the "security state", can become the totalitarian drive to wipe out all differences (sometimes by wiping out the people themselves). We've seen this more than once in our time.
In this connection, of course, it should probably be pointed out that the death of the private in this way does not lead to some flourishing of the public--in fact it corrupts both public spiritedness and the common good as both of these realms collapse into despotism. It rots civil society from the inside, even as the powers of the despotic state are employed from the outside against it.
May '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Nope. Can't do it. And what's more, the nature of the beast would allow any search engine to do to what they're doing. So whom does one trust more?
As for the end of print, of newspapers and magazines - welcome to the creative destruction of the free market.
May '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
And let me add this about privacy... It was revealed the other day that there are 4.2 million closed circuit TV cameras in the UK, one per every 14 people and the government is monitoring them all. And you're worried about Google?
Edited on April 1, 2012 at 5:21pmRe: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Paul Snively:
Paul, see Crow's Nest's point about the suspicion engendered by the desire for privacy. Nothing arouses the suspicion of a jealous state faster than the use of encryption software. It's like coming home reeking of cheap perfume.
Nov '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Crow's Nest
As for an example of the difference between information and knowledge, Paul, I think you're being unnecessarily obtuse here. we're increasingly blind to the differences. · 1 minute ago
Human nature has not changed in this regard, internet or not. I believe the real difference is the wide spread dissemination and greater ease of groups forming around really bad things like pornography (you knew somebody would bring this up), sex slave rings, and worse. Privacy, businesses becoming obsolete, etc. are drops in the bucket compared to the underworld which is now much more organized and easy for those inclined to find and participate in vicariously or actively - not that this isn't also 'the same as it ever was' to quote David Bryne, just much easier. If it's easier to advertise, and find information on good things, it's easier for bad things too. The ease tends to make these things more respectable and accepted, too.
Oct '10
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
The suspicion of the desire for privacy is not driven by the Internet but by the bureaucratic state, and a certain sort of statist mentality that lives in symbiosis with it. As Paul S points out, the Internet (broadly construed) provides nation-state-level security to individuals for the first time since the birth of the nation-state.
Jan '11
Re: Is There Any Way to Shove Google Back in the Tube?
Is this an April Fools post?