Is Google becoming our collective brain?
|By some estimates, Google has over half a million servers that each month crunch the equivalent of all the data in the entire library of congress 240 times over. Well over half of web users go to Google for answers to their questions, asking the machine over 400 million queries per day. Slowly but surely, Google is becoming our collective brain. Consider this: Google can now predict flu outbreaks weeks in advance simply by monitoring searches for flu terms (’sore throat’), and aggregating this based on location. They’ve launched this service as Google Flu Trends. ‘From a technological perspective, it is the beginning’, says Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. So where is this is all heading?
If we accept that Google is becoming the repository of all our information (via its enormous web archive of over 25 billion pages), and the collector of all our questions (via our 400 million search queries a day), it’s not a such big step to argue that by owning the input and the output, it’s becoming a collective world brain.
If Google can predict flu outbreaks, presumably its engineers can also pull back our collective mood (the world is ‘grumpy’ based on search terms), hopes, dreams and more.
Should Google become a collective asset for the world to harness in non-commercial ways?
Judging by Yahoo’s top searches for 2008 (with Britney Spears at number one), Yahoo is its teen sibling.
Tagged: collective brain, Google, technology
- 0
- 2
RELATED
You can turn your doodles into photo-montages with the online tool PhotoSketch, which uses images from Flickr, Google and Yahoo to produce composite images based on even the most rudimentary drawings. [image via CreativeReview]
Swedish company myFC are working on a fuel cell sticker to charge your portable devices. The prototype is a flexible, 0.11-inch-thick strip that generates 0.9 watts of power at 0.5 volts as long as it is exposed to hydrogen and oxygen in the air. The strip can also be stacked to provide even more power.
Speck fitted case for iPhone 3G
Here’s one for all you tech savvy fashionistas. Outfit your iPhone 3G in form-fit style with a case from Speck. The lightweight, snap-together design lets you instantly make your iPhone 3G a fashion statement, while the soft fabric provides added comfort and extra grip in hand. Personally, I’m digging the plaid. But maybe that’s just because it’s getting chilly outside.
Also by ZAC
We’ve been long time fans of Aesop, which is making quite a name for itself in the alternative beauty products space. So it was no surprise to hear they’ve entered the fragrance market. True to form, their new range of perfumes are distinctive, unorthodox and intense. Read more
Feiyue shoes have arrived in Australia and I can’t wait to get a pair of these treads on my hoofs. They look like they could be the new Onitsuka Tigers, but with more edge and personality. The story goes that these shoes were big in China in the 1920s, before a brand revival in 2006 got them some traction in Europe. You can join the chat over at their Facebook page or check them out in person via their Australian stockists, Tuchuzy (Sydney), Nique (Melbourne) and Brave New World (Perth). Read more
There’s something magic about being in the same space as those performing at the very height of their field. The Australian Chamber Orchestra have just kicked off their Great Romantics national tour and it was a treat to see them live in Newcastle, Australia for their first show. I’m no chamber orchestra aficionado, but I know good music when I hear it. And the tones played by lead violinist Richard Tognetti are as sweet as you could hope to hear. Can’t hurt having a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin under the chin. A tour worth checking out.
YOU'RE SAYING (2)
Zac said | 9 December, 2008
I think younger generations tackle privacy fears in the most powerful way possible: they ignore it and open up their lives via services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and so on. A number of companies and individuals are also doing this too – negating the fear of information slippage by making all their ‘information’ public.
So to stop using one of the most powerful resources available to us for fear of exposing that one eats pho isn’t the right way to go about it, IMO.
Shouldn’t we embrace the machine and see what it can pump back to us if we think smartly about what we want to harness from our collective memes?
HAVE YOUR SAY
Janay Everett attended the School of Visual Arts in New York before moving to Atlanta where she earned a bachelors degree in fine arts from the Atlanta College of Art. Her artwork is influenced by abstract expressionism. As she notes, she likes to ‘focus more on the process rather than on the finished product‘. Read more
So 2008 brings its first great album of the year, the self-titled release from Susanne Sundfør, put out on a small label — Your Favourite Music — and a totally unsettling and challenging listen. Read more
Pasadena, California artist, Jason Redwood, creates luminous, thickly textured artwork and illustrations that practically leap off the page with their bright colours and three dimensional layering. Read more
Too beautiful to simply pass by, this is the Ring House by young Japanese architectural firm, TNA. Read more
Back in the day, New Zealand pop absurdists, Split Enz were the finest damn Australasian band around. This track, I Walk Away, off their final album — Spellbound — is their ultimate moment: a hefty dose of pure melodic majestry, wrapped around the aching lyrics and quirky arrangements of genius frontman, Neil Finn.
Put simply, Sydney fashion label Andrea and Joen create the hottest shoes around. You’ll find a combination of pure sophistication and rock and roll attitude in every pair from their range. Their sexy style has become a must for contemporary women, including Gwen Stefani, Katy Steele and Pink, all of whom have been seen proudly flaunting them around town.
I’m enjoying reading the insight and witticisms of the Indie Breakfast Club blog, which casts a wide net over entrepreneurship and what it means to be one and still have a conscience.
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more
Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.
Almanac Market in Philadelphia is slightly pricey, but you definitely get what you pay for. Offering fantastic bread, cheeses, produce, and cured meats such as sopressata and pepperoni, it was a great pit stop when my band played in town, and definitely more economical and tasty than hitting a greasy spoon for road snacks.
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Wolfmother. Rock n roll. Mystical lyrics. Heavy riffs. They have a new album out, Cosmic Egg, and we have five copies to giveaway, along with their debut album. To enter, tell us your favorite Wolfmother song and the city you live in. Yo! Two fingered salute. Read more
The 6-card Dosh is ideal for the person on the move. Dosh wallets patented designs are moulded in the polymer ‘desmopan’, highly durable, water-resistant material with a luxurious, soft- touch feel. Read more
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
MrStick said | 6 December, 2008
I think this issue will be the technological question of our generation. “What should google do with its information?”
But google does not control the input. We must remember that for every time we blame google for its non-stop march toward a privately owned incarnation of 1984 – we are the very people who give them the information.
If I install google maps on my phone I have just made the following statement: “Finding the nearest Vietnamese restaurant is worth the price of google permanently storing the date, my name, my phone number, and the fact that I eat pho.”
Google is becoming increasingly dangerous but there is a very simple way to stop its progression: stop using it.