Google and their attempt at creating the World Brain

I'm going to do my best to provide the layout of the 2013 BBC Storyville documentary entitled Google and the World Brain

There is at least one website available where you can watch the full film but I think it would be against T&C for me to provide it. Therefore, I will provide the content and post the trailer below.

H.G. Wells popularized the world brain idea in 1937:

This lecture lays out Wells's vision for "...a sort of mental clearing house for the mind, a depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarized, digested, clarified and compared."[1] Wells felt that technological advances such as microfilm could be used towards this end so that "any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica."

- wiki

Google approached a number of the largest libraries in the world to ask for their approval in scanning their books/writings/magazines, in an attempt to house all written material ever, on the internet. Not a huge leap given they already mapped the earth with Google Earth and later released Google Sky, Google Moon and Google Mars.

Harvard, the greatest university library in the world, was one to initially allow Google to digitize millions of their books. The Harvard library contains over 17 million volumes. The Library of Montserrat was another. Libraries signed secret agreements with Google and they tried their best to keep libraries from communicating with each other about these agreements. Institutions were excited at the prospect of forever preserving the great works of great minds, but they did not yet realize exactly what permissions they were granting Google.

Project Ocean was the name given, by Google, to this task of digitizing all the books of the world. Project Ocean: Stanford:

And Google has embarked on an ambitious secret effort known as Project Ocean, according to a person involved with the operation. With the cooperation of Stanford University, the company now plans to digitize the entire collection of the vast Stanford Library published before 1923, which is no longer limited by copyright restrictions. The project could add millions of digitized books that would be available exclusively via Google."

Unlike Harvard, who only allowed Google to digitize books in the public domain, other libraries allowed them to scan books in copyright. Michigan University was one of the libraries that gave Google permission to scan copyrighted books, without permission from the authors.

Into play comes the Fair Use law:

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

Copyright protects the particular way authors have expressed themselves. It does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in a work.

The safest course is to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.

- Copyright.gov

Authors began to get wind that Google was scanning their copyrighted books. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers then filed a lawsuit. A settlement was proposed for $125 million. $45 million of that was put aside for compensation for authors. The settlement also gave Google the exclusive right to scanning copyrighted books that were out of print, and make a profit off of those materials, while the author, publisher or rights-holder would be left out. Google's library then becomes a bookstore. The settlement would lift Google as the master over millions of works. They would be able to determine what price to list books at, it could be ANY price.

Microsoft and Amazon also scanned copyrighted books, but only after being granted permission by the authors. Both companies declined part Google's $125 million settlement.

A problem was discovered in Google's proposed settlement. There was nothing in the agreement to protect people who looked at their books. Google was going to track people, what book they were viewing and how long they viewed it, and every other book they viewed afterwards. Google made no guarantee regarding people's privacy and where that information would end up. Employer? Government? Whomever requested it?

Major players/authors in France, Germany, China, Japan, etc began to take action and spread the word. In 2009, an American court began Fairness Hearings to consider whether it should approve the Google Book Settlement. Judge Denny Chin listened to 500 objections. Representatives of countries proposed great consequences if the settlement was approved, including trade-sanctions. Judge Chin obviously denied the settlement but of course the fight in part, is ongoing. The Authors Guild is suing Google for $2 billion in damages for scanning books in copyright. Google continues to scan books out-of-copyright in agreement with major libraries.

Here's what the co-founder of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly, has to say on individual's internet privacy:

If people find that privacy policies of a particular technology is not to their liking, they should unplug it. They should retreat from the internet. They should cut off their phone lines and they should go hide in the mountains... they have that choice.

I hope everyone can find the film! You can message me if you'd like.

reply to post by six67seven


I know what your saying, but you can still read a book the old school way , like having a actual book in your hands and no one besides you would know.

ZeussusZ
reply to post by six67seven

 

I know what your saying, but you can still read a book the old school way , like having a actual book in your hands and no one besides you would know.

This is much less about whether to read a book online or in your lap, and much more about Google trying to control dissemination of information, breaking copyright law, tracking readers and monopolizing the e-book industry.

None of the above is my opinion, its all content from the documentary. I just laid it out in form for those unable to find the film.

The only reason to need so much data is to build A.I. - not like the A.I. in the movies but - a real game changer, like the wheel or the arch. Humanity needs A.I. to help solve the problems of exploring the universe.

First we have to build A.I. to help us deal with the asteroids / e.t. threats. A.I. is a matter of survival.

Google world brain is clearly the leader, as the world's #1 search engine, it has been collecting our thoughts for a decade. The project is so important that nearly every human being on the planet is involved, in some way, with the production of the world brain.

Maybe that's why they are buying up the robotics corporations...they are trying to build Skynet and Terminators to keep it safe.

Hmmm
I remember the Movie Ai
about a little robot boy that seeks answers of the whereabouts of his
human mother. eventually asks a big Einstein figure in a simulation
computer what he wants to know...

Or could we be looking at the next SKYNET ?

Books. My most favourite pastime when relaxing and only the best I purchased win a place on my bookshelves for the purpose of re-reading.

Having the complete array of all written books and manuscripts is, for me, both a wonderful and, at the same time, frightening thought. That rare and valuable volumes, out of print for centuries, may suddenly be available to me is beyond exiting. The complete history of the written word since the burning of the Alexandrian libraries holds me in awe and, it is because of that great historical loss millennia ago, I believe that converting it all into pixels doubles our chances of retaining that which has not fallen into obscurity or succumbed to dust.

What frightens me is that such an endeavour may make the world's great libraries themselves irrelevant and, in some future time, that a global calamity would obliterate the internet, losing everything but those few volumes that may survive such disaster in their original physical form.

In Alexandria, we lost touch with much of the ancient world. Not something to EVER repeat for the sake of humanity itself.

SayonaraJupiter
The only reason to need so much data is to build A.I. - not like the A.I. in the movies but - a real game changer, like the wheel or the arch. Humanity needs A.I. to help solve the problems of exploring the universe.

First we have to build A.I. to help us deal with the asteroids / e.t. threats. A.I. is a matter of survival.

Google world brain is clearly the leader, as the world's #1 search engine, it has been collecting our thoughts for a decade. The project is so important that nearly every human being on the planet is involved, in some way, with the production of the world brain.

I think youre spot on, more right than any of us realize or can imagine at this point in time. A.I. was briefly discussed in the doc and was stated as The ultimate goal by one of the Google co-founders.

If my memory serves me correct, he was asked why they were so focused on strengthening their search engine, and he responded with something like 'this isnt about the search engine, this is about creating A.I.'

Highly intelligent individuals like this think well into the future and breaking the rules is just a means to an end, and is unavoidable. Google just so happens to be directed by at least two highly intelligent individuals (with regards to technological evolution)

Flag and star for creep factor alone.
This is Orwellian in dimension, a huge grab for the written history of our race.
Whoever owns it can rewrite it to their little heart's desire.
Give me paper, the feel of it in my hands, the smell of musty book goodness in my nose.
Just reminiscing about the good old days when there were actual paper books.

This may be one of those moments in time that when looked back on can point to an irreversible shift - something that to me is both awesome and terrifying at the same time, in scope and consequence.