William Gibson on Google

By Jake • September 2nd, 2010 • 2 Comments

William Gibson (yes, that William Gibson) penned a fascinating op-ed piece for the New York Times this week.

Op-Ed Contributor – Google’s Earth – NYTimes.com

This bit hooked me (h/t Geekosystem)

If Google were sufficiently concerned about this, perhaps the company should issue children with free “training wheels” identities at birth, terminating at the age of majority. One could then either opt to connect one’s adult identity to one’s childhood identity, or not. Childhoodlessness, being obviously suspect on a résumé, would give birth to an industry providing faux adolescences, expensively retro-inserted, the creation of which would gainfully employ a great many writers of fiction. So there would be a silver lining of sorts.

The whole piece is fascinating and frightening all at once, especially his observation that legislation is constantly playing catch up with technology, something that is potentially destructive to society as a whole.

What will the future hold for Google or technology in general?

Find the comments.


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