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I always find stories like this fascinating. It always reminds me of how fragile our futures are. If Google was acquired the internet will be a VERY different p

by adim86 7y ago

I always find stories like this fascinating. It always reminds me of how fragile our futures are. If Google was acquired the internet will be a VERY different place today. I find it humourous because this kinda brings to mind Skynet from the Terminator. In the movies, they spend a lot of time sending killing machines to the past to take out people who would invent the future and it causes a great deal of chaos, while all they might need to do is add a clause in a merger or acquisition that botches a deal that prevents Skynet from existing and the mission is accomplished. LOL

Jestar342 7y ago
Instead of killing machines, the terminators would be lawyers. That could be a very interesting plot. "Are you Sarah Connor? ... You've been served."
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  > That could be a very interesting plot. No, it would involve lawyers.
  - ralfd 7y ago
    Terminator lawyers!
    - martin-adams 7y ago
      Litigator 2: Judgement Day
      - Kye 7y ago
        My Cousin Vinny would have looked a lot different if Joe Pesci's character was a terminator.
- Izkata 7y ago
  In The Sarah Connor Chronicles, one Terminator accidentally time traveled decades too far into the past, its arrival tweaking the timeline such that the person it was supposed to assassinate wouldn't be at the venue he was supposed to be. The terminator became a businessman and built a construction company, just to build the building where the assassination was to take place. According to records found, it was loved by its workers, since it cared more about getting the job done than about profits, and would regularly work alongside them. So yeah, the idea doesn't need a lot of tweaking for a lawyer terminator to exist. They already do whatever they need to for their goal, they aren't just killing machines.
  - endtime 7y ago
    I'm sure this was part of the original intention of whoever named them "Terminators".
jfoster 7y ago
Are you sure? If Google didn't remain Google within Excite, perhaps they wouldn't have been as successful, and would've still been replaced by the next Google-like company. Perhaps, like judgement day, Google was inevitable.
- hyperpallium 7y ago
  Some of google's success was due to simple business decisions. An acquirer would reverse these, and google wouldn't win. These were: uncluttered search-only, instead of a portal filled with junk; no paid-placement; it was also faster due to clever backend, so an acquirer could save money on the backend, bringing it down to adequate speed. Some argue that The Algorithm (pagerank) wasn't important for google's success at all, except as marketing to geeks, because search results were comparable to alternatives. Today, apart from consumer habit, google's biggest advantage is speed, possible by massive capital investment in datacenters. But also today, google is hamstrung by money (Wall St), making them vulnerable, as previous search was. OTOH the problem/need was there, maybe eventually there would have been another google targetting search-only.
  - srean 7y ago
    > because search results were comparable to alternatives. As an early user of Google I vehemently disagree. That better results was not due to PageRank alone is well understood.
    - pmoriarty 7y ago
      I was an early user of Google too, and I don't remember the search results being any better than AltaVista (the dominant search engine at the time) or any of its other competitors. Google was just fast and ad-free, unlike AltaVista, which was ad-infested and slow. That was the attraction for myself and the other people I knew who used it.
      - srean 7y ago
        Perhaps we used to search for different things. AltaVista allowed far more control over operators and filters, but invariably I would have to dig much deeper in ther results to find what I was looking for. On google it would be there on the first page.
russfink 7y ago
Please be reading the parent comment, O creator of Robot Chicken!
omarhaneef 7y ago
I suspect that it is easier to terminate someone than to send someone back to become a lawyer to get situated in the right deals etc. "Mission failed!" "What happened?" "Terminator 7 was not a good cultural fit at Akin Gump." "Okay, roll out Terminator 8, but this time make sure he isn't quite as serious. Send him back..."
hyperpallium 7y ago
[wrong parent]
- ses1984 7y ago
  Oh really, you "confirmed" search results were "comparable," do tell...
jccalhoun 7y ago
Realistically, killer machines wouldn't abide by the Geneva Convention and could just make up a poison gas or supervirus and wipe out all humanity without making humanoid robots in the first place.

by adim86 7y ago

Jestar342 7y ago

Instead of killing machines, the terminators would be lawyers. That could be a very interesting plot. "Are you Sarah Connor? ... You've been served."

raxxorrax 7y ago
> That could be a very interesting plot. No, it would involve lawyers.
- ralfd 7y ago
  Terminator lawyers!
  - martin-adams 7y ago
    Litigator 2: Judgement Day
    - Kye 7y ago
      My Cousin Vinny would have looked a lot different if Joe Pesci's character was a terminator.
Izkata 7y ago
In The Sarah Connor Chronicles, one Terminator accidentally time traveled decades too far into the past, its arrival tweaking the timeline such that the person it was supposed to assassinate wouldn't be at the venue he was supposed to be. The terminator became a businessman and built a construction company, just to build the building where the assassination was to take place. According to records found, it was loved by its workers, since it cared more about getting the job done than about profits, and would regularly work alongside them. So yeah, the idea doesn't need a lot of tweaking for a lawyer terminator to exist. They already do whatever they need to for their goal, they aren't just killing machines.
- endtime 7y ago
  I'm sure this was part of the original intention of whoever named them "Terminators".

jfoster 7y ago

Are you sure? If Google didn't remain Google within Excite, perhaps they wouldn't have been as successful, and would've still been replaced by the next Google-like company. Perhaps, like judgement day, Google was inevitable.

hyperpallium 7y ago
Some of google's success was due to simple business decisions. An acquirer would reverse these, and google wouldn't win. These were: uncluttered search-only, instead of a portal filled with junk; no paid-placement; it was also faster due to clever backend, so an acquirer could save money on the backend, bringing it down to adequate speed. Some argue that The Algorithm (pagerank) wasn't important for google's success at all, except as marketing to geeks, because search results were comparable to alternatives. Today, apart from consumer habit, google's biggest advantage is speed, possible by massive capital investment in datacenters. But also today, google is hamstrung by money (Wall St), making them vulnerable, as previous search was. OTOH the problem/need was there, maybe eventually there would have been another google targetting search-only.
- srean 7y ago
  > because search results were comparable to alternatives. As an early user of Google I vehemently disagree. That better results was not due to PageRank alone is well understood.
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    I was an early user of Google too, and I don't remember the search results being any better than AltaVista (the dominant search engine at the time) or any of its other competitors. Google was just fast and ad-free, unlike AltaVista, which was ad-infested and slow. That was the attraction for myself and the other people I knew who used it.
    - srean 7y ago
      Perhaps we used to search for different things. AltaVista allowed far more control over operators and filters, but invariably I would have to dig much deeper in ther results to find what I was looking for. On google it would be there on the first page.

russfink 7y ago

Please be reading the parent comment, O creator of Robot Chicken!

omarhaneef 7y ago

I suspect that it is easier to terminate someone than to send someone back to become a lawyer to get situated in the right deals etc. "Mission failed!" "What happened?" "Terminator 7 was not a good cultural fit at Akin Gump." "Okay, roll out Terminator 8, but this time make sure he isn't quite as serious. Send him back..."

hyperpallium 7y ago

[wrong parent]

ses1984 7y ago
Oh really, you "confirmed" search results were "comparable," do tell...

jccalhoun 7y ago

Realistically, killer machines wouldn't abide by the Geneva Convention and could just make up a poison gas or supervirus and wipe out all humanity without making humanoid robots in the first place.