Google has a deeper motive for wanting to have access to all of the books in the universities and libraries than has previously been suggested. At least that’s according to a professor’s interpretation of the documentary called Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and The World Brain. Jonathan Goodman, professor at The School of Marketing and president of Halyard Consulting, discussed this idea recently in his weekly podcast. Goodman commented on this documentary that discussed the premise that Google had approached universities and national libraries about having their books scanned and added to Google’s database.Lawsuits ensued, but Goodman feels they missed the big picture of what Google is trying to do.
The film opens with ominous bass and a high-pitched drones that lead into historic footage of futurist and sci-fi writer H.G. Wells describing the “world brain” as a “complete planetary memory for all mankind.” But for all its benefits, Wells also warns that the world brain could become powerful enough to displace governments and monitor everyone – Josh Constine. Techcrunch
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and other search engines can read people’s search requests but they can’t understand the intent behind them. If a person types in a word that has a double meaning, search engines may select responses based on the most popular meaning rather than the intended meaning. Search engines have no comprehension of the English language and that is what Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is trying to achieve by getting access to more books. All of that information will help it understand the semantics of the language. “When you look at a tool like Freebase…it’s trying to add semantic intent to the comprehension of a search.” – Jonathan Goodman
According to Goodman, comprehension is the next step to achieving artificial intelligence. It is what will take searches to the next level and that is why Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) needs more data. The film certainly seems to be making the case that Google isn’t nearly as innocent and naive as their public persona might suggest, that they are in fact quite the opposite and may or may not be attempting a monopoly of information. Certainly Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) isn’t a nefarious tech Firm in the present, but in the years to come will power and global domination of data change them? To listen to the podcast, visit: http://halyardconsulting.com/podcast-missing-big-picture image credit: Polar Star Films
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