Last night I went out to a quiz night with my wife for a bit of fun. We had a nice meal, chatted with Greek people and won the quiz. So all in all, a good night out.
But there was a part of this that I found oddly disturbing and strangely reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.
As you might expect when participating in a general knowledge quiz, there are often disputes as to what the correct answer is. For the sake of half a point people will go to great lengths, quite passionately and heatedly. This usually involved whipping out a smart phone and asking Uncle Google what the answer was.
What’s wrong with that? I hear you ask.
What’s wrong with it is that the answer served up by Google was considered the ultimate proof of truth. What Google says is the truth, the only acceptable truth, the only truth that scores a point.
That’s small potatoes when you’re asking something like – how many teaspoons in a tablespoon? (the answer as it turned out, is 3 or 4 depending on which measurement schema you use).
But what if Google started changing history? What if Google said something didn’t happen? That is was ‘fake news’. What if Google said something did happen when it didn’t?
No-one questioned the Google results. In their minds Google = the truth.
How easy would it be with this tool to rewrite a population’s perception of the world? How easy would it be to manipulate and control the narrative fed to people all around the world? This control could be used to persecute minorities, start wars, destroy civilisations. It could also be used to heal wounds, promote cooperation and harmony.
When we surrender our critical thinking and our source of knowledge to a single entity, no matter how benign it may seem, we fasten the shackles of slavery willingly around our own wrists.
I think in the case of Google it is less a case of the thought police enforcing a certain view of the world to control the populace, and more a submission of populace to a single simple source of information that requires the minimal amount of effort.
Goggle is not enslaving us, we are enslaving ourselves, whether Google wants us to or not.
Steemit etiquette
- Do write meaningful comments
- Do discuss the topic in the post
- Do tell me about how we share an interest
- Do take the time and effort to actually read the post before commenting
- Don't ask for follows
- Don't ask for votes
- Don't say you have voted for a post and then not vote for it
- Don't say you have resteemed a post and not resteem it
- Don't write short coments like 'Nice post'
- Do be the sort of person you want reading and voting for your own posts.
Do you like games?
Check out my Steemit Ultra Marathon game where you can win 20SBD for fst place, 10SBD for second and 5SBD for third. Get your virtual running shoes on and get ready to run!
Also don't forget to check out my Dad's blog
Who else can tell you stories about impersonating an officer, stealing a military aircraft to go on a booze run, or steal military aircraft and go on an unsanctioned bombing run - and that's all before he turned 18!
Check out @len.george and find out what other madness he got up to!
Are you new to Steemit and trying to figure out what it's all about?
Head over to: https://www.steemithelp.net/. It's the best place to get a handle on what the platform is all about.
oooooo....that's good. I've always used the phrase ask the google gods.
We can get pretty lazy and depend on information fed to a machine rather than learning ourselves and using our critical thinking skills to work things out.
Very insightful @trevor.george.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks :-)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
do they do 'Ripley's firsts online?'?
Hoyles for card games,
there is so many referance books that uncle google wins because it is easiest
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Very much agree. I am looking at alternatives to Google now like Duck Duck Go. We know Google has an agenda and they have already started censoring things and twisting stories.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Google do have serious power to influence opinions. We have the choice of whether to trust them
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I wonder if a lot of cases of the Mandela effect are actually subtle tests of our receptivity toward alterations to the past.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It's been done for millennia, I mean even before Google ;)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
the difference here is that the drivers are the people. It's not the state saying 'thou shalt believe this'. It is the people saying 'this is the only truth'.
In the first case you can blame the state, and perhaps change its course, through the ballot box or revolution.
But how do you change the people, when the people can't and won't see any other truth?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
There is only one truth with the little difference what this truth is used for. For one a shoe is a shoe, for the man from the jungle it's a cup for water. Back to the topic if Google is the state, it's still the source of segregation, and people all over the globe have been complaining that Google isn't neutral.
This also has been done for ages.
How do you teach a person that a wall is black when it's been told since birth that it's white?
Check out 5 Monkeys and a Ladder
I think the whole aproach of teaching is wrong. it all aims to put stuff in boxes and that every box has it's place and worth separating it from other boxes even further. Problem is that people in boxes will likely point the finger at other boxes and the end result, even in a long run, is always violence. I think that is why I don't like to title myself with hobbies, skills, etc. If governments change their mindset into doing good, people will follow. Otherwise even if revolutions change the person holding the biggest club, nothing much will change because people will still sit in their own vulnarable boxes full of pride, mistrust and ignorance not wanting to accept others. That's even ok for me. Everyone has its way but we force our stuff on others through exploiting, toxic trade deals and wars to mention the biggest
I hope you don't dream of boxes tonight :P
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit