• Question: will google take over our minds

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      Asked by Rhiii<3 to katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 16 Mar 2016.
      • Photo: Lauren Laing

        Lauren Laing answered on 16 Mar 2016:

        Hi. This is a very interesting question! No I don’t think so, no matter how much technology develops around us we will always have freedom of mind. A large proportion of the population rely on google on a daily basis for its functions as a search engine, email accounts and calendars, and you are right to think google will become more and more a part of our lives! It is thought at in the next 5-10 years google may be able to revolutionize our lives!

        Some of the google technologies include smart glasses, wearable electronics like smart watches and contact lenses which can measure and monitor your blood sugar! Also, smart houses where you can do thinks like change the thermostat, change the channel on the TV, and get notifications that your laundry is ready all without leaving your couch! Perhaps google could provide early diagnosis of diseases based on data collected by health care aids and devised like the smart watches, or even control your car to drive you places.

        I think with all of these tools, google will have access to large amounts of data on each of us, and we will be able do some really exciting things. However, I don’t think computers will be able to take over your mind as such!

      • Photo: Richard Friend

        Richard Friend answered on 16 Mar 2016:

        I don’t think it’ll take over our minds, no. I think it will have an effect on us though – I know that a load of conversations have been cut short because an answer has been so easily accessible! I’m not sure if I’m as good at remembering things any more as well, as if you’ve got the answers on your phone in your pocket you don’t have to remember anything. I’m not sure if other people have had the same experiences as me though. But it certainly has improved the state of education of people.

      • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

        Stuart Atkinson answered on 16 Mar 2016:

        Google is certainly massive – so much so that the verb ‘to google’ basically means ‘look it up on the internet’.

        Depends what you mean by ‘take over’. There was a group of school children in Manchester who recently went on a tech ‘de-tox’ meaning they couldn’t use any social media for a week and most of them found it really hard to do without it. We have become very reliant on having technology and all its benefits close to hand, so much so that when it is taken away we feel it almost like we are having withdrawal symptoms from a drug.

        Does that mean we are addicted to technology, or it it that we have changed as humans and are now more like cyborgs (part human, part machine)? Maybe, but rather than the technology being built into us, like the cybermen on Dr Who, we carry it round in our hands.

        I guess in a way you could say ‘yes’ to ‘has google taken over our minds’, but not in the sense that we have completely lost control of them! We are still evolving as new technology becomes available – we are very different people to those 50 years ago because of this.

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