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I think you're drastically underestimating the scale (and number - you missed Google Maps, which is bordering on an essential service) of these systems, the deg

I think you're drastically underestimating the scale (and number - you missed Google Maps, which is bordering on an essential service) of these systems, the degree to which people rely on them - both businesses and individuals - and the difficulty of replacing them. I don't know how old you are but I suspect this is an age thing. I remember the world before Google, before smartphones, before mobile phones even. It actually worked pretty well. People had jobs, traveled, communicated over long distances, read the news, invested in shares, organised events with friends, bought products, and everything else. Google at vast cost has made some of those things marginally more convenient, as well as introducing a whole raft of new problems. They could go away and it would be a blip nothing more. As for Google Maps I also remember when everyone owned an "A-Z" and found their way around cities with it, and that was OK too, and there was very little misleading information in an A-Z nor squabbles over who "owned" which business and could write about it! If Google failed overnight it would be a macro-economically significant event. Other than their shareholders and a bunch of sleazy adtech merchants without which the world would be better off anyway, very few would be negatively impacted beyond a minor inconvenience for a few weeks.

vosper 6y ago
I’m old enough to remember all of these things you’ve condescendingly assumed I must be ignorant of, including trying to find my way around LA freeways, during my first hours in America, at night, with a paper map unfolded on my lap, trying to work my way backwards from the address of our motel to our current location, as that changed constantly at 60 mph. Google Maps is much better. But you’re missing my point, and also the specific thing I was replying to. My point was not that things didn’t work before Google, obviously they did - we’re here, now. The universe didn’t start with Google. My point is that so many businesses and people today are directly, constantly, relying on the multitude of Google services that if Google went away overnight it would be a catastrophe for them. Google going away overnight is the thing that was posited in the post I replied to. I also made no assertion about whether Google is a net good or not, so again you’re replying to something I didn’t say. (For the record I do believe sum of the services provided by Google and the cost at which they provide them is a net good for the world. No, In not interested in debating that)

vosper 6y ago

I’m old enough to remember all of these things you’ve condescendingly assumed I must be ignorant of, including trying to find my way around LA freeways, during my first hours in America, at night, with a paper map unfolded on my lap, trying to work my way backwards from the address of our motel to our current location, as that changed constantly at 60 mph. Google Maps is much better. But you’re missing my point, and also the specific thing I was replying to. My point was not that things didn’t work before Google, obviously they did - we’re here, now. The universe didn’t start with Google. My point is that so many businesses and people today are directly, constantly, relying on the multitude of Google services that if Google went away overnight it would be a catastrophe for them. Google going away overnight is the thing that was posited in the post I replied to. I also made no assertion about whether Google is a net good or not, so again you’re replying to something I didn’t say. (For the record I do believe sum of the services provided by Google and the cost at which they provide them is a net good for the world. No, In not interested in debating that)