You’ve got to go beyond google

February 25, 2013 — explorer, google, open ended, search, TS Elliot

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

TS Elliot

In its highest form, a search has no well-defined object. It’s open-ended, an act of exploration that takes us out into the world, beyond the self, in order to know the world, and the self, more fully.

The trouble is that if we are not searching for our socks or car keys, we are usually searching for something on google.  We’ve always searched for truth and meaning, for love, for transcendence, for peace, for ourselves. To be human is to be a searcher.

Google once helped us to push outwards by making some sense of the web. Now it gives us information that fits the behavior and needs and biases we have displayed in the past, as meticulously interpreted by Google’s algorithms. It’s declared goal is to try to predict what we want to see without us even typing. It’s locking us in, rather than helping us to break out.

Google less. Be an explorer more.

Have a curious day.