The Power of Search

The search engine is the key to the internet, the internet is the key to information, and information is the key to power. Google is the premier search engine and purveyor of information on the internet and therefore one of the most powerful organizations in the world (including governments). In time, it could be the most.

Whenever anyone wants to know anything, they type it into Google and it tells them the answer. Most of our knowledge today comes from Google search results, primarily Wikipedia (whose editors also have an enormous amount of power through control of information).

Today, many people still have first-hand knowledge from books and primary sources, but in the future, as we become more and more digital, most of all human knowledge will come exclusively from the internet. Google has so much control over what the internet says and which parts of the internet humans see.

If there’s some page or website with life-altering knowledge, we may never know how to access it unless Google shows us the way by linking to it in our search results. For example, a free natural cure for a disease could be buried behind thousands of pages about pharmaceutical drugs. No one human can navigate the billion web pages on the internet without an algorithm-powered search engine.

As Google gains more data from its users, it can control our knowledge and behavior through search results without us even knowing it. They can deliver unique search results for each individual user, tailoring the information provided in order to influence their behavior. If you control the information one sees, you can control the way they think and act. You can alter history in the present in order to dominate the future. You can manipulate politics, topple governments, and seize absolute world power.

Don’t be evil.