Muloongo, Jason 307119 2009.05.

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Assignment: Choose any communications invention. As an engineer, describe how it works. As a member of society, explore the impact of this invention on the quality of human life both at the time of its invention and since.

27 A World Without Google

It is clear that since the dawn of time, whether the world has been in existence for millions of years or just 6000 years, whether one considers the theory of evolution or that of creation, some sort of belief or religion has always governed the world. The belief in Mother Nature controlling the elements and driving the process of evolution versus the belief in an Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient Superhuman Being sustaining life as we know it only by his grace and favor after man turned away from Him back in the garden of Eden. The world as we read it only from our history books always revealed that pharaohs, kings, generals, Caesars, governors, presidents and dictators often used a tactic of exercising ignorance among the peoples in order to sustain their powers. The truth was only circulated amongst the elect, elite and specially selected peoples as to secure the advantage over the common man. Multitudes were held in deception by the authorities and powers of their day as if pawns in a chess game. Worst of all, was that there was absolutely nothing common man could do about it. Knowledge is power and it was that very statement that history testified towards. One clearly sees the value of knowledge in our lives. Today that still holds, and when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin released a search engine that was aimed to aid Internet users find accurate and timely results, little did they know that they were on the brink of something extraordinary that would see the defeat of one of historys most powerful devices. In all their wildest dreams, never could one imagine such a feat achieved. With their ostentatious efforts the men at Google laboured, simply bearing in mind a tool to bring users to results and information, but to common man they have brought us the truth. Google has set free captives of ignorance and unleashed a wealth of power onto the common man. No longer can ignorance be an excuse for lack of sound judgment and inability for lucid rationale to be displayed. So Google is all-powerful, all-present around the world and all knowing is Google god? Let us take a look at how Google works. Google is an Internet search engine, particularly Google.com Apple Dictionary 2007. That is by definition, but it is still not sufficient to describe a god. Google in laymans terms is something that we can go to and ask a question and within the instant it will not only find the relevant information pertaining to our question but it will also provide where to find this information by providing the necessary links and addresses. Information that is up to date and from all over the world is swiftly provided. It even corrects us when we spell incorrectly or erroneously phrase.

Google in engineering terminology would require the use of I.T jargon to be fully specified. It would be as follows: A web based application that requires Internet access and acts as a search engine to deliver results to a user when required to. Because the Internet is one giant World Wide Web (WWW), all information placed on it in one part of the world is accessible in another part of the world as long as it can be located on the net. Google is simply a tool used to search all over the WWW and match words that the user types to words found on the millions and millions of pages placed on the WWW. Google will then place before the user the page with the most words matching your input. This raises the question, is Google ethical? If a search is placed for the most explicit, immoral and socially unacceptable content, whether it is a 6yr old or a 70yr old retired army general whom has most probably seen it all, Google will place those results before the eyes of the user. Because Google is dependant on the input by the user, this implies that it is unable to morally and ethically discern what content is right and wrong for who. It lacks that decision-making ability. After further analysis we find that Google is limited to the information available on the WWW this leads one to conclude that it lacks its own source of power, and it is once again dependant on something else. This something else that Google is dependant on is the WWW. So what is on the WWW? The WWW contains content ranging from: articles, scientific journals to bias and heavily opinion-based writings, propaganda to simple childrens stories, and daily economic updates. It also includes audible pod casts and videos of whatever the imagination can cook-up. This undoubtedly means that with every ounce of truth error creeps in. So with every bit of content found credibility is scrutinized. Google cannot discern what is truth and what is error. It simply presents what it finds. So Google is not all present as it is limited to Internet access. It is not all knowing as it does not understand every language under the sun and it is definitely not all-powerful as it has dependency on various aspects. Google is merely a search engine and not a think engine. One cannot expect Google to be the be all and end all. Perhaps it is the giver of knowledge but not of wisdom. A world without Google? perhaps a daunting thing but surely manageable. Although to many in this day and age, it takes on a form of god in their lives that they just cannot live without, none-the-less it is just not God.