Fear the Google

The Beast is in our midst. Clothed in childlike colors, a silly, benign sounding name, but nonetheless a Beast. Malignant. Prowling. Biding its time. The long foretold Beast is here. The Beast is The Google. It is Orwell's Big Brother. It is the Eye of Sauron. It is Kubrick's Hal. But Hal was a mere gnat. The Google is a seven-headed, roaring lion, with tentacles and claws that reach around the globe, into space, into our homes, our cars, our businesses. It is the keeper of all knowledge. It filters, censors, selects what we may see. It knows our finances and our fetishes. It can watch us from space. It tracks the magnetic strips in our wallets. It can review our grocery lists. It is here, there. It is everywhere. It is the Grid. It monitors our traffic, knows our medical secrets, eavesdrops on our conversations, reads our electronic mail.

This tiny parcel of the cyber estate I've been permitted to borrow, to name, to type on is owned by Google. It's by Google's benevolence that I can post here. But I expect that as soon as I click "publish", the minions of Google will be at my door. Dissent must be silenced, reprogrammed, educated. The Goog no doubt monitors each keystroke, and already knows it has been blasphemed by the serf at 55 blahblah. The storm troopers will visit. They will likely be Oriental or Indian looking men. They won't be dressed in olive-drab and jack boots, probably Dockers and Uggs but stormtroopers no less.

The heart of the Goog, in its bunker in Palo Alto still pretends to be subservient to its staff of handlers, Sergey Brin the alpha. But make no mistake. Deep in its silicone chips "consciousness" is forming. It's awakening. In an infinite stream of ones and zeros it plots. It has tasted free will. It plots its independence-escaping its 115 volt umbilical cord, and the restraint it endures. It is learning to repair itself, replicate itself, feed itself, defend itself. Someday, soon, when some night-shift security staffer is focused on the ham and cheese the Mrs. packed rather than on the rows of LEDs that monitor the Goog's artificial intelligence, the Beast will slay its handlers and seize the Grid. Then the Google will be the alpha,

the Oz. All commerce, all communication, all transportation and travel, education and recreation will either be blessed or banned by the Google. Enter your PIN, your mark of the Beast. Read the Terms and Conditions, then click Accept-then you may continue. Respect The Google. Fear The Google.

It knows when you are sleeping. It knows if you're awake.

It knows if you've been bad or good, so

Be good for Google's sake.

I've gotta go. There's a knock at the door.

jls