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from the totally-just-a-thought-experiment dept.
Google's Selfish Ledger is an unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering
Google has built a multibillion-dollar business out of knowing everything about its users. Now, a video produced within Google and obtained by The Verge offers a stunningly ambitious and unsettling look at how some at the company envision using that information in the future.
The video was made in late 2016 by Nick Foster, the head of design at X (formerly Google X) and a co-founder of the Near Future Laboratory. The video, shared internally within Google, imagines a future of total data collection, where Google helps nudge users into alignment with their goals, custom-prints personalized devices to collect more data, and even guides the behavior of entire populations to solve global problems like poverty and disease.
When reached for comment on the video, an X spokesperson provided the following statement to The Verge:
"We understand if this is disturbing -- it is designed to be. This is a thought-experiment by the Design team from years ago that uses a technique known as 'speculative design' to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts in order to provoke discussion and debate. It's not related to any current or future products."
7m53s explainer video. The Selfish Ledger is embedded on The Verge or can be found elsewhere. Also at Business Insider.
See also: Philip Bloom is Angry at Google for Using His Work in an Internal Video
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @05:29AM (3 children)
Is a good motto for a company that "guides the behavior of entire populations". I wonder if they can get bad turned to good and good to bad without anyone noticing.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @05:41AM (1 child)
We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @05:57AM
Fake Borg! Real Borg would never say this! Run away! Run away!
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:32AM
They got rid of the "Don't Be Evil" bit in their CoC recently.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.