According to biographers, in the eighties, Steve Jobs was kind of obsessed about IBM. This is one of the reasons for which he approved the famous commercial below, one that was hardly liked by the rest of the directors. It was a bold move, mostly because Steve believed that stopping IBM was his messianic mission.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_d5R6Il0II[/youtube]

The truth is that, right now, the world is hundreds of miles closer to 1984 than it ever was in the eighties.

Good News! Facebook Is Doing Good

Several days ago, I watched some CNN coverage on Facebook. Lots of analysts praised the company’s progress in delivering ads on mobiles. In their opinion, this is turning Facebook into a better company, a better investment and so on.

Frankly, from where I stand, two things need to be addressed:

1. I always thought that great companies do something good for their customers. They simplify their lives. They make them happier. They make them live longer. Damn, I was wrong – as it turns out, great companies deliver nice, targeted, integrated ads.

2. Facebook should watch their back. I am afraid that, by delivering such nice ads, they are crossing one dangerous frontier. The ‘evil’ one. Good ads are Google’s territory. They have it built in their DNA.

As much as I would like this to be a joke, it is not. I don’t know of any Google product that hasn’t been designed for ads, directly or indirectly (like for gathering information which is useful to deliver ads). If you know one, just let me know and I will mention it in this article (stack elements do not count, they are built to ‘support’ ads).

We Know Better What You Like

Most probably I would have never written this post if it weren’t for Larry’s brilliant keynote at Google I/O 2013. It was a big push. And to be completely fair, I understand where some of his frustrations come from. Corporations have a pretty bad behavior, Microsoft and Oracle are no exceptions, and Google is no saint either. Perhaps it’s not his personal fault, but I guess that it’s pretty hard to satisfy investors that want to see better ads by doing good things.

Obviously, Google has access to a lot of information and they think they know what is good for the people, but Larry’s logical arguments are flawed. Yes, a lot of people would be extremely happy to get a list of daily tasks in the ‘very front’ of their eyes. They cannot miss a thing, including a nice work/life balance, toys to play with (after all, 3D printers will soon be a commodity) or even free food (Star-Trek like food replicators are not far from it either).

But the truth is that most people don’t like what’s supposed to be best for them. They want to discover. They want to make mistakes. They want to learn from mistakes. They want to cry because things do not work. They want to keep looking for happiness and they enjoy it when they find it.

The way I see it, the current ads are too explicit to be highly effective. But this is not an excuse for trying to plant ads straight into people’s brains.

It Gets Even More Dangerous

Assuming that Google knows what is best for the world, I hope that they are also able to determine what is going to happen with the current economic model, when the future they aspire to gets implemented.

Frankly, I don’t care if someone wants to expose their brain or soul as an API. The real problem is that this model is going to affect economy on a global scale. Maybe it’s going to be better. I don’t know, but I am sure that, with all the information they gathered, not even Google can foresee this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of governments. But history offers comprehensive information and models that help us make all sorts of decisions, even on how to get rid of governments we do not like. I do not want to suggest any analogies in this article, but I think that answers are easy to find,  last century included.
Every time the goal was noble and superior.

I am fully open to the intelligent exploitation of any exact science, not only IT. However, I am against letting any organization use IT to control the behaviors, minds or relationships of individuals. Many companies have already a great influence, so let’s not make them even more powerful. Especially if they boast about loving everything ‘open’ and fighting the bad boys.

Do you share Larry’s ‘advertised’ vision of the world? Don’t be evil, let me know. 🙂