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I could argue that Mr. Lynn is crying "sour grapes" over this, but he also came very close to a point Bryan Lunduke made recently about Google[1]. Google has t
by pythonistic 9y ago
I could argue that Mr. Lynn is crying "sour grapes" over this, but he also came very close to a point Bryan Lunduke made recently about Google[1]. Google has the power to stop people using their products from making a living, and a collapse or compromise of Google's infrastructure would cause untold economic harm to the nation and world. If Google as an "information provider" fails (search, email, telecommunications, DNS services, cloud services, etc.) a lot of other businesses stop or collapse.
A healthy economy is a lot like a healthy ecosystem: some parts are weaker, some will fail when stressed, but allowing the system to react naturally to inputs will likely result in a better outcome. But when you encourage a monoculture, single stresses can result in a complete collapse[2]. We're experimenting with establishing monocultures in our economies with potentially even more impact than those of the 19th and 20th centuries (like Standard Oil) that inspired the anti-monopoly regulation and legislation: if Samsung were to shut down tomorrow, what would be the impact on the Korean, regional and world economies?
An all-powerful Google that can't accept criticism or action to "trim it back" to preserve the overall economy represents a danger and Mr. Lynn was right to point this out.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzJlvx4ndk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzJlvx4ndk
[2] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/04/the-worlds-most-popular-banana-could-go-extinct/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/04/the-w...
- noir_lord 9y agoFunnily enough I mentioned Standard Oil in relation to Google and Facebook on here the other day, I'd read some terrible Clive Cussler novel that had Rockefeller as a character and that sent me of to read more about him.
- ryandrake 9y ago> If Google as an "information provider" fails (search, email, telecommunications, DNS services, cloud services, etc.) a lot of other businesses stop or collapse. Seems a bit of an exaggeration. Let's pretend we got word from an all-powerful being that Google and all of its services were going to disappear from the face of the earth in exactly 30 days, giving everyone including users, competitors, partners, etc. plenty of time to prepare. 30 days from now, specifically, what collapses?
- TheAdamAndChe 9y ago> Let's pretend.. that Google and all of its services were going to [shut down] in exactly 30 days That wasn't the question the post above was asking. The question wasn't "given a chance to prepare, would the economy collapse," the question was "if Google were to suddenly collapse, would our economy survive?" There exist several single points of failure in our global economy. Given the incredible importance Google has in our economy, with search, email, collaboration software, and cloud computing, it's not a stretch to say that Google is one of those points of failure. It's also a location of power concentration. Google basically controls the internet as most see it. If your site is removed from Google, its chance of becoming popular is almost completely removed. If you are forced off of Google and you aren't prepared, you could lose years of important information. They also track nearly everyone, opening up the possibility of corporate population control and cultural shaping. Do we really want single corporations this powerful?
- ryandrake 9y agoThe parent didn't specify a time frame, just that a failure of Google would result in "untold economic harm to the nation and world". Even if they went away tomorrow with no notice, sure there would be some pain and a lot of IT departments would be pulling in extra hours for some months, but come on...
- christophilus 9y agoI have relatives who are in education, and I was fairly shocked to hear how Google has taken over that space. I don't think this is a good thing at all. Not sure what can be done about it, though. If they become as dominant here as they are elsewhere, they really could control the world's information from cradle to grave. takes tin foil hat off
- dade_ 9y agoI used most of Google's services. I thought they were great, but them I met a neighbour of mine that held such hatred toward them that I could only describe it as visceral. He told me a story of how he used Gmail, Docs, chat, Blogger, but as a director YouTube was the most important. One day his account was locked. Google decided he had used YouTube inappropriately and suspended his account. No recourse, no remedy, but more importantly his data and online identity were instantly gone. And then I thought about it, what if it happened to me? And that was the end of the Google for me, death to my Apple ecosystem, and hello DNS registrations and safety deposit boxes with the backups of my data. SaaS is a Chinese Finger trap though, so the further you are in....
- wolco 9y agoVery important lesson in not connecting your google products
- CaptSpify 9y agoWhich doesn't work so well when Google keeps pushing consolidation down your throat. I never wanted my accounts merged, but they went ahead and did it anyway.
- AmIFirstToThink 9y agoI know. Right? It connected mine and my kid's school account together because same browser was used to login to those accounts. I have come to the conclusion that Google is evil. It can't chose to not do evil anymore.
- dfps 9y agoThis is a good point, but how would this cause Google's business branch (advertising) from collapsing? Businesses want to advertise, and their service here is reputable.