Re: <nettime> tensions within the bay area elites

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

On 05/13/2014 12:31 AM, michael gurstein wrote:

> Now that Google's halo is a wee bit dented some deeper reflection on what
> Google might, through its search algorithms, be doing to our underlying
> frameworks of knowledge--either inadvertently by structuring them in pursuit
> of its commercial goals or purposefully by, for example, following the
> direction of its friends in the US State Department--might be in order; and
> perhaps even more usefully some thought on what might be done about this.

Ahem, I believe some denizens of this list have organized entire 
conferences about this? Does anyone remember Deep Search?

Anyway, the point is always well taken: knowledge is power, epistemology 
is fundamental to both technical development and cultural elaboration in 
a complex society. Foucault left us that understanding, at the very 
least. But what Florian's post suggests, when you look at Google's 
acquisitions and obsessions all together in one basket, is even beyond 
computational epistemology. The Singularity is an ontological proposal. 
It maintains that the steady increase in computer-processing capacity 
will ultimately (and even soon) result in the emergence of a new form of 
Being. Like a good multidivisional corporation with an overgrown 
research arm, Google is preparing to realize and, I guess, profit from 
this ontological transformation.

Why the military robots? Why not remember Manuel De Landa's little book, 
War In the Age of Intelligent Machines, which caused such a stir in its 
day? De Landa predicted that computers would gain autonomous 
intelligence and operational capacity through the kind of competition 
for processing speed and power that has historically occurred under both 
cold and hot war conditions. Of course, when we look at Google's present 
capacities for recording, analyzing and synthesizing global language 
usage, it seems that they may find another road to the Singularity. But 
like a good multidivisional corporation with billions of research 
dollars to burn, they are adding a little military insurance to their 
oh-so-civil program of ontological domination.

Geez, why couldn't the Stanford folks have just stuck with Pong?

best, BH


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