Why Google Is the New Evil Empire

[mtnsaa]

I use google for just about everything.  Getting away from them would be a great idea though.

Ever since i seen the news on how they were being re structured and such it made me wonder why.  They say it is for business but I believe it may be but I really do also believe they have an alternative motive.  What that may be I truly do not know.

But I can not see them gathering all the information that they do JUST for marketing.  I think they may have other ideas in mind.  If not now but maybe in the future.

I really dont know what to say.

Besides, I DONT TRUST EMM, and I think the distrust is right up there with our own government.

EDIT: Awesome, just realized this post got me to my member level.   Nice.

They are doing that for marketing purposes, but also because it gives them even more power to hold all this information, just in case. It's not that they will start blackmailing people, but they will have plenty of leverage to negociate with governments, one can say that they are much more powerful already that many of them...

However a government can be overthrown or just reelected. Google or companies like this depend solely on their users, if they really mess up an alternative will gain power and put them out of business in a second.

[montaga]

The Facebook and Google generation

[mtnsaa]

This generation and the one before it have been fed into believing the concept of self and privacy are old, dead memes.

But they are right in a sense, if you have a car accident or fall in the middle of the street, there are morons taking your picture and video, that's not Google or Youtube fault. This is what comes with technology as it advances, for many cases it amplifies human stupidity.

You can't educate everyone and tell them it's rude to do that, however you can REGULATE it and make it illegal. That's my point, it's a fine line and it's not always black and white. One can even argue that the ones taking the picture have a right to do so...so privacy as we knew it is long gone. You are being filmed and tracked almost everywhere either by government, companies or people itself.

[DevSoft]

10 years ago if someone wanted to look up something, he went to the library.
Today google.com

[Wilikon]

This generation and the one before it have been fed into believing the concept of self and privacy are old, dead memes.

But they are right in a sense, if you have a car accident or fall in the middle of the street, there are morons taking your picture and video, that's not Google or Youtube fault. This is what comes with technology as it advances, for many cases it amplifies human stupidity.

You can't educate everyone and tell them it's rude to do that, however you can REGULATE it and make it illegal. That's my point, it's a fine line and it's not always black and white. One can even argue that the ones taking the picture have a right to do so...so privacy as we knew it is long gone. You are being filmed and tracked almost everywhere either by government, companies or people itself.

You cannot create rules and force people to have empathy toward other humans. If it is more important to you to rack up "likes" instead of helping your fellow human then Humanity becomes an old meme.

http://www.worldmag.com/2015/09/a_decline_in_empathy_in_our_smartphone_world

[bitcoinboy12]

I think he do this because we scare us that we all monitored by him... maybe i can save my life by using tor browser or any browser with no cookies save...
or may we use vpn to be anonimous...

[Wilikon]

The Facebook and Google generation

Deep.

[Wilikon]

I think he do this because we scare us that we all monitored by him... maybe i can save my life by using tor browser or any browser with no cookies save...
or may we use vpn to be anonimous...

Then... The permanent use of tor and vpn would mean, in your mind, you cannot trust googlefacebooktwitter the same way you would pay for an anti malware for protection...

[Wilikon]

Google exec: With robots in our brains, we'll be godlike

Futurist and Google exec Ray Kurzweil thinks that once we have robotic implants, we'll be funnier, sexier and more loving. Because that's what artificial intelligence can do for you.

I suspect a few of you are looking forward to being robots.

Who wouldn't be fascinated by the idea of becoming someone other than themselves? We do get so tired of being the same dull soul every day.

What kind of robots will we be? Happily, I can provide an answer. For living inside my head all day have been the words of Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil.

For more than a curt while, he's been keen on humans going over to the bright side. He's predicted that humans will be hybrid robots by 2030.

But what will this be like? More importantly, what will this feel like? Are you ready to engage what's left of your humorous humanity when I offer you the information that Kurzweil believes we're going to be quite wonderful people when we're part robot?


Kurzweil has a truly, madly, deeply optimistic view of who we will be when nanobots are implanted into our brains so we can expand our intelligence by directly tapping into the Internet.

This is such a relief. I had feared that when a robot was implanted into my brain, my head would hurt. I was afraid that I wouldn't be quite in touch with my feelings, as I wouldn't be sure if they were real or just the promptings of my inner robot.

Kurzweil, though, has reassured me. Speaking recently at Singularity University, where he is a member of the faculty, he explained that my brain will develop in the same way my smartphone has.

"We're going to add additional levels of abstraction," he said, "and create more-profound means of expression."

More profound than Twitter? Is that possible?

Kurzweil continued: "We're going to be more musical. We're going to be funnier. We're going to be better at expressing loving sentiment."

Because robots are renowned for their musicality, their sense of humor and their essential loving qualities. Especially in Hollywood movies.

Kurzweil insists, though, that this is the next natural phase of our existence.

"Evolution creates structures and patterns that over time are more complicated, more knowledgeable, more intelligent, more creative, more capable of expressing higher sentiments like being loving," he said. "So it's moving in the direction that God has been described as having -- these qualities without limit."

Yes, we are becoming gods.

"Evolution is a spiritual process and makes us more godlike," was Kurzweil's conclusion.

There's something so uplifting, yet so splendidly egocentric in suggesting that man will soon be God, thanks to artificial intelligence. The mere fact that this intelligence is artificial might be a clue as to its potential limitations.

Moreover, I rather think of us as a dangerous species: Primitive, yet believing we're so very clever.

There are so many fundamental things with which we struggle. Here we are, though, believing that we'll be godlike in a few years' time.

Lord, help us.


http://www.cnet.com/news/google-exec-with-robots-in-our-brains-well-be-godlike/

[mtnsaa]

It's scary as hell but aren't we as human race strive for "perfection"? It's just a matter of time when we finally become robots, either we become them or they make us extinct. We already have some persons that can be classified as cyborgs/androids.

[Lenore]

Thats all pretty deep.  I dont know if I would welcome that or not.  Being smarter would be great but you know that there would be restrictions in place.  You know certain people wont allow us to all be super intelligent. For fear or what the outcome may be like or any action against them.  Be great to be a lawer or something though with those types of implants.    Maybe it would be more like a career spacific programming or something.  Governments I am sure will not allow for everyone to know everything.  They would lose some power over us eventually one way or another.  Plus I am sure there are people out there that would be against it aswell.  Guess there are a load of ways u could look at this.

Could be awesome though.  Imagine what we could do and accomplish. 

Umm yup ill take the nanobots........

[Wilikon]

It's scary as hell but aren't we as human race strive for "perfection"? It's just a matter of time when we finally become robots, either we become them or they make us extinct. We already have some persons that can be classified as cyborgs/androids.

Does an ant colony be considered a perfection and should we, as the human race, strive to emulate one on a planetary level? Who should our queen be? Google?

We reached Mars while ants and bees have been doing the same thing, like tiny robots, for millions of years. That is not perfection. That is why Nature created us to be self aware and decide for ourselves.

We talk about ants and bees. Bees and ants do not talk about the human race.

[mtnsaa]

I see your point, but we can't help ourselves, we are driven by this force to reproduce, for our children to be "better" than us, more intelligent, more beatiful, wiser, etc. That's how we actually choose our partners. Self awareness is also what gives us ego and the illusion we are separated from nature and reality and that somehow we have the power to influence absolutely everything. In my opinion we do have power but to a certain extent, your body is the one doing the digestion, cures your ailments, knows when it needs to feed, etc. We are now discussing concepts extremely metaphysic here but there's no other way really.

As we can't all agree on what the human race should be, either for religious, moral, politics or different points of view, our own instincts will be the ones that take over. To me there's no other future where we eventually become machines or bio engineered gods. There will be plenty of opposition like in the past, but if you know, there are already serious scientists working on creating an artificial brain (not AI), imagine how that can be used, you can actually upload yourself if your brain dies. We already have the capacity for human cloning, but that was stopped on its tracks because of ethics. It's just a matter of time really and I'm talking of technology that really could be available in 20 years if we want to. Imagine what would happen in 200-300 or more.

Like in medicine, blood transfusions, surgeries, pacemakers, implants, transplants, were all taboos a while ago. In a century letting your body and brain degenerate will be like letting yourself die today because of a simple infection or procedure.

As human race we are (since millions of years) at war with nature, trying to transcend it via technology, prolonging our lifespan from 20 to 80 years, improving our quality of life in every aspect. Maybe our destiny is to become living gods eventually, perhaps even transcend the physical altogether. I don't think we have a choice, we may have a rational one depending on the era you live, but that doesn't last and it's subject to change.

[Wilikon]

I see your point, but we can't help ourselves, we are driven by this force to reproduce, for our children to be "better" than us, more intelligent, more beatiful, wiser, etc. That's how we actually choose our partners. Self awareness is also what gives us ego and the illusion we are separated from nature and reality and that somehow we have the power to influence absolutely everything. In my opinion we do have power but to a certain extent, your body is the one doing the digestion, cures your ailments, knows when it needs to feed, etc. We are now discussing concepts extremely metaphysic here but there's no other way really.

As we can't all agree on what the human race should be, either for religious, moral, politics or different points of view, our own instincts will be the ones that take over. To me there's no other future where we eventually become machines or bio engineered gods. There will be plenty of opposition like in the past, but if you know, there are already serious scientists working on creating an artificial brain (not AI), imagine how that can be used, you can actually upload yourself if your brain dies. We already have the capacity for human cloning, but that was stopped on its tracks because of ethics. It's just a matter of time really and I'm talking of technology that really could be available in 20 years if we want to. Imagine what would happen in 200-300 or more.

Like in medicine, blood transfusions, surgeries, pacemakers, implants, transplants, were all taboos a while ago. In a century letting your body and brain degenerate will be like letting yourself die today because of a simple infection or procedure.

As human race we are (since millions of years) at war with nature, trying to transcend it via technology, prolonging our lifespan from 20 to 80 years, improving our quality of life in every aspect. Maybe our destiny is to become living gods eventually, perhaps even transcend the physical altogether. I don't think we have a choice, we may have a rational one depending on the era you live, but that doesn't last and it's subject to change.

We are not at war with Nature. Nature is not at war with us. We are not at war with the Sun and a sun tan, sun block lotion is not a weapon. Nature forces us to be better. Evolution, if you believe this to be true, is what made us better. When a lion wants to eat you, it is not at war with you. A blood transfusion is not at war with you, nor is a pacemaker.

The H.R. Giger's biomechanical vision of the human race should not be based on a .py file recreating the vision of a man, kurzweil whom I love a lot, a man afraid of his own mortality. And Google. Everything we use to make us live longer comes from Nature. We learn Nature. We learn its poisons and its miracles.  Not a war. A learning curve. The more we learn the less we are afraid of the dark.
You see it as a war because of your own mortality and the fact that you will die, not knowing the meaning of life. But this has nothing to do with nature, but more with the nature of man.

Our transformation, adaptation is a natural one, preparing us to spread all over the galaxy. Sure, it will take times. But if the embedded technology does not belong to you and you can't have access to its under layers, then you will be a product. Will you have to subscribe, just like you subscribe to cable TV monthly, to have the right to keep on living? Those are very basic questions google should be able to answer.

I am not telling you we should be afraid of linux, blender, gimp, javascript, html, tcp/ip. If ubuntu decides to push hard for open source robotic and transhumanism and everything can be checked and double checked, then I won't have a problem with it. Make every blueprints open source...

Have you heard of the stagefright bug?
https://startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=stagefright+bug&cat=web&pl=opensearch&language=english

Aren't you happy you own an iphone instead of an Android phone?

We should embrace what we understand to be a free technology to everyone at the same time, at any level/cast of society, like, you know... Bitcoin. That, we could agree on.


I did skip the uploading mind part in purpose because we do not know what consciousness is. Believe me, I love animes like Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex and their long ramblings on what consciousness is (is it a long list of memories, or more?)

But If I upload my consciousness into a Google server then... Who owns it?

[mtnsaa]

I didn't mean we are at war with nature per se, we are nature! Our bodies and brain are made of it. However our sense of self doesn't let us find comfort in it, we are definitely not in harmony. We are just not "perfect" the way we are or the way we were created. We always need something else, no matter how humble or wise you are, even comfort in the spiritual world and after death. We'll be enlightened if that wasn't the case if you are familiar with eastern philosophies.

We both are always discussing the same elements but from different point of views, that's ok haha. You are worried about the "should". Should be like this or like that. If we were greeks 3000 years ago and had a time machine, we won't be very happy to see that, while technology advanced, the rest of the problems affecting the human spirit remained the same today. Corruption, fear, chauvinism, bigotry, prejudice and so on. Actually you seem to think very much like Socrates, who nowadays would definitely be a strong supporter of open source, decentralization, creative commons.

How Socrates died? Like many others like him. These were very important people that challenged the establishment or status quo. They were unique and that's the problem, being different is what also set them apart. People, like Google itself (a company or a government is a group of individuals after all) will always choose to expand and defend their property or wealth. I understand your point, one should keep pushing, driving the hammer down, one day it will be clear as water for the rest. But back then, religion eased a lot of our questions, it was God's will, there were different castes and fate had power. Nowadays we are more alone each passing day, with the same or worse existential questions, depression and anxiety are a plague. Institutions like marriage is at an all time low, people in developing countries doesn't have any children and so many other issues. One can see this as growing pains as we change the old norms, but we are actually losing our "humanity" in the process, children are born in broken homes, people objectifying others, lack of empathy, nihilism, hedonism, promiscuity.

We can't seem to understand we are all in this together, that technological advances should be for the benefit of us all and not be ruled by only a few. However, in my opinion, only when we transcend (by becoming sentient machines perhaps?) the problems inherent in our very own nature (greed for wealth, wrath, loneliness, fear of death, vanity, etc) we will be able to discuss a different world.

[vero]

They are doing what every company in the world wants to do. Dominate in every field possible and make the most money they just are succeeding better then most companies out there

[zenitzz]

Based on the number of times it has been found guilty of Privacy Violations in the European Court you should only use Google if, you know how to properly configure it.

[Wilikon]

Based on the number of times it has been found guilty of Privacy Violations in the European Court you should only use Google if, you know how to properly configure it.

Or:
https://startpage.com/

[Wilikon]

I didn't mean we are at war with nature per se, we are nature! Our bodies and brain are made of it. However our sense of self doesn't let us find comfort in it, we are definitely not in harmony. We are just not "perfect" the way we are or the way we were created. We always need something else, no matter how humble or wise you are, even comfort in the spiritual world and after death. We'll be enlightened if that wasn't the case if you are familiar with eastern philosophies.

We both are always discussing the same elements but from different point of views, that's ok haha. You are worried about the "should". Should be like this or like that. If we were greeks 3000 years ago and had a time machine, we won't be very happy to see that, while technology advanced, the rest of the problems affecting the human spirit remained the same today. Corruption, fear, chauvinism, bigotry, prejudice and so on. Actually you seem to think very much like Socrates, who nowadays would definitely be a strong supporter of open source, decentralization, creative commons.

How Socrates died? Like many others like him. These were very important people that challenged the establishment or status quo. They were unique and that's the problem, being different is what also set them apart. People, like Google itself (a company or a government is a group of individuals after all) will always choose to expand and defend their property or wealth. I understand your point, one should keep pushing, driving the hammer down, one day it will be clear as water for the rest. But back then, religion eased a lot of our questions, it was God's will, there were different castes and fate had power. Nowadays we are more alone each passing day, with the same or worse existential questions, depression and anxiety are a plague. Institutions like marriage is at an all time low, people in developing countries doesn't have any children and so many other issues. One can see this as growing pains as we change the old norms, but we are actually losing our "humanity" in the process, children are born in broken homes, people objectifying others, lack of empathy, nihilism, hedonism, promiscuity.

We can't seem to understand we are all in this together, that technological advances should be for the benefit of us all and not be ruled by only a few. However, in my opinion, only when we transcend (by becoming sentient machines perhaps?) the problems inherent in our very own nature (greed for wealth, wrath, loneliness, fear of death, vanity, etc) we will be able to discuss a different world.

We are perfect, because... we can describe how imperfect we are.

Any thoughts or descriptions of a better, perfect human falls into the construct of a living automaton. Re imitating Nature and the solutions Nature came up with, to make us perfect. The reason why we are never humble, and we have greed for wealth, wrath, loneliness, fear of death, vanity, never to be satisfied with what we have is because of one thing: the hunger in our belly and the fear to feel its pain. This is even true for the Digambara monks.

Unless you are working for google, on their D-Wave computer, next to ray kurzweil as his personal most valued assistant, developing the ultra top secret sentient module near to go online... We are both on the same perspective, only a few degrees apart. Google is the other point of view.

Corruption, fear, chauvinism, bigotry, prejudice: google, google, google, google, google...

Wilikon = Socrates? Hmmmm..... Yes!! Finally!!!!!!

CC and (C) can live together next to each other. Transhumanism Tech should be CC, not (C)

Google will be the owner of your uploaded mind. That is the logical outcome.

Like water. Ineluctable. But not by force, not by driving a hammer down.

The more we become intelligent with our smart phones, the worse the existential questions, the multiplication of anti depression drugs, anti anxiety drugs. Our new perfection is a plague.

Looks like you've described why we should be worried of a google planet better than I would have ever said it myself.

We are already perfect sentient machines, copyright free, until google decides to get a patent on mind upload.

[mtnsaa]

It's not that I don't see your point, we can put this debate to rest, I definitely agree that my future brain (or self? we don't even know!) should be open source and not owned or managed by Google or Apple if that's an option. I'm arguing that to think there would be an option is rather pointless or wishful thinking. Wilikon (aka Neo Socrates) is definitely right to think that knowledge should be shared and not sold as merchandise or used for profit. But we live in a world where we are discussing water to no longer be an human right? What's next? Air of course.

These companies are monopolies, they cast you out of business or cast you out of life altogether. We do have alternatives to e-mail if you don't want to use Gmail, but you don't have real alternatives to many other products that are industry standards (like the Adobe analogy I mentioned a while back). You can't be on Facebook, Skype or Whatsapp by signing up with an alternative because the rest just don't use it. You can argue that you don't need it in order to live, but soon you end up only communicating with your old land line phone.

So I can definitely envision 55% of the people using Google artificial brain, 35% using Apple's and then 5-10% some inferior command-based linux-powered get-your-own-server ones that can't even keep up or are incompatible with the latest "brain apps" like virtual sex or snowboarding on the moon. You'll be missing out!

I'm kidding of course but it will always be like that to me and that's the only part we disagree.