5 ms·

Suddenly all the investments into genetics, aging, and biotech from Calico / Verily makes sense. I imagine Alphabet’s end goal is some kind of intrinsic unders

Suddenly all the investments into genetics, aging, and biotech from Calico / Verily makes sense. I imagine Alphabet’s end goal is some kind of intrinsic understanding of every single person on a biological level in order to better target and serve them ads that fit them.

throwaway35784 7y ago
Specifically pharmaceutical products. "This pill you don't know about will stave off a genetic condition you don't know you have." Cognitive dissonance overwhelms me.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  That actually sounds pretty useful if they can get away from the problem of conflating correlation for causation, but it's probably not a problem you can solve with big data alone for exactly that reason.
- stevenhuang 7y ago
  What are you trying to say. Won't that at least be a beneficial outcome of having all this data being mined?
  - Yizahi 7y ago
    Aaand your deductible has now tripled, enjoy being broke and temporarily healthy. :) (please don't tell me that googlenet would never sell/barter/exchange this data or analyzed results based on it).
    - username90 7y ago
      > please don't tell me that googlenet would never sell/barter/exchange this data or analyzed results based on it Why would they be any less trustworthy than the hospitals or insurance companies who normally has this data?
      - Yizahi 7y ago
        First and main point - currently it is either hospitals+insurance have this data or hospitals+insurance+google. Even without paranoia or conspiracies it is logical that N entities is more trustworthy than N+1. And another thing - hospitals are much more regulated (insurance - I don't know) by government and due to their byzantine structure and ancient IT systems it is harder to do mass extraction of data. One patients data - easy, a small bribe to one or two humans and it's yours. Data on million of patients - much harder. Google on the other hand has means AND motive to do anything with any amount of personal data. They can set high frequency trading with it if they want. Nothing to stop them, zero regulation, offshore management, offshore funding.
        dodobirdlord 7y ago
        Perhaps you would benefit from reading up on what a Business Associate under HIPAA is.
bb88 7y ago
How about the fact that health care in the US is ripe for change? We spend a lot of money only to have the insurance company dictate the course of action, rather than the doctors on the front line.
- roywiggins 7y ago
  Why do you think Google's intervention will result in doctor autonomy and not rule by algorithm?
  - Jgrubb 7y ago
    Isn't "rule by algorithm" kind of what we have now anyway?
  - throwaway35784 7y ago
    Doctors that I know resent their lack of autonomy. They are executing algorithms, generally against their will. They know the patient will get over their cold but they want a pill. They over test to avoid litigation. They treat symptoms not causes. Not because they think that's the right course of action but rather because they'll get fired if they don't.
shadowgovt 7y ago
It always tickles my funny bone to see people attempt to tie every Google move to "How do we use this for ads?" It's the opposite; Google's seeing that their revenue stream is very near a monoculture and they know monocultures can't last forever. A lot of their initiatives (cloud, video, wearables) are trying hard to find an alternate revenue stream that will be as profitable as ads so that when the industry inevitably crashes (not because of anything specific they can predict, but because all industries eventually do) they're not powering their entire empire off of a single river that just dried up.
- phkahler 7y ago
  Sure. Their biggest business outside of search is YouTube. But that doesnt make much money on subscriptions, its ads...
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    With Premium and TV, they are making a big push to change the YouTube revenue model away from as dependence.
    - JaRail 7y ago
      Don't forget gaming. They're going after the Twitch business model there. Combining that with traditional YouTube and Stadia offers a very robust social gaming platform. They're basically going after digital entertainment all across the board, looking for opportunities to leverage cloud/ai to leapfrog encumbants.
  - shadowgovt 7y ago
    Yep. The goal they're targeting is a huge uphill battle for them. Margins on ads are so good, there's almost nothing that competes.
- nexuist 7y ago
  How can advertisements ever die in a capitalist society? Anyone who wants to sell anything buys ads. That's how the cycle works. Sure, they can morph into different mediums and appear in different contexts, but that doesn't make them "not ads."

throwaway35784 7y ago

Specifically pharmaceutical products. "This pill you don't know about will stave off a genetic condition you don't know you have." Cognitive dissonance overwhelms me.

shadowgovt 7y ago
That actually sounds pretty useful if they can get away from the problem of conflating correlation for causation, but it's probably not a problem you can solve with big data alone for exactly that reason.
stevenhuang 7y ago
What are you trying to say. Won't that at least be a beneficial outcome of having all this data being mined?
- Yizahi 7y ago
  Aaand your deductible has now tripled, enjoy being broke and temporarily healthy. :) (please don't tell me that googlenet would never sell/barter/exchange this data or analyzed results based on it).
  - username90 7y ago
    > please don't tell me that googlenet would never sell/barter/exchange this data or analyzed results based on it Why would they be any less trustworthy than the hospitals or insurance companies who normally has this data?
    - Yizahi 7y ago
      First and main point - currently it is either hospitals+insurance have this data or hospitals+insurance+google. Even without paranoia or conspiracies it is logical that N entities is more trustworthy than N+1. And another thing - hospitals are much more regulated (insurance - I don't know) by government and due to their byzantine structure and ancient IT systems it is harder to do mass extraction of data. One patients data - easy, a small bribe to one or two humans and it's yours. Data on million of patients - much harder. Google on the other hand has means AND motive to do anything with any amount of personal data. They can set high frequency trading with it if they want. Nothing to stop them, zero regulation, offshore management, offshore funding.
      - dodobirdlord 7y ago
        Perhaps you would benefit from reading up on what a Business Associate under HIPAA is.

bb88 7y ago

How about the fact that health care in the US is ripe for change? We spend a lot of money only to have the insurance company dictate the course of action, rather than the doctors on the front line.

roywiggins 7y ago
Why do you think Google's intervention will result in doctor autonomy and not rule by algorithm?
- Jgrubb 7y ago
  Isn't "rule by algorithm" kind of what we have now anyway?
- throwaway35784 7y ago
  Doctors that I know resent their lack of autonomy. They are executing algorithms, generally against their will. They know the patient will get over their cold but they want a pill. They over test to avoid litigation. They treat symptoms not causes. Not because they think that's the right course of action but rather because they'll get fired if they don't.

shadowgovt 7y ago

It always tickles my funny bone to see people attempt to tie every Google move to "How do we use this for ads?" It's the opposite; Google's seeing that their revenue stream is very near a monoculture and they know monocultures can't last forever. A lot of their initiatives (cloud, video, wearables) are trying hard to find an alternate revenue stream that will be as profitable as ads so that when the industry inevitably crashes (not because of anything specific they can predict, but because all industries eventually do) they're not powering their entire empire off of a single river that just dried up.

phkahler 7y ago
Sure. Their biggest business outside of search is YouTube. But that doesnt make much money on subscriptions, its ads...
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  With Premium and TV, they are making a big push to change the YouTube revenue model away from as dependence.
  - JaRail 7y ago
    Don't forget gaming. They're going after the Twitch business model there. Combining that with traditional YouTube and Stadia offers a very robust social gaming platform. They're basically going after digital entertainment all across the board, looking for opportunities to leverage cloud/ai to leapfrog encumbants.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  Yep. The goal they're targeting is a huge uphill battle for them. Margins on ads are so good, there's almost nothing that competes.
nexuist 7y ago
How can advertisements ever die in a capitalist society? Anyone who wants to sell anything buys ads. That's how the cycle works. Sure, they can morph into different mediums and appear in different contexts, but that doesn't make them "not ads."