Google Search Destroyed Our Memory: And That Was Always The Plan 

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There's a picture floating around online right now from an old book of some sort, circa 1999, recommending Google as "a pure search engine - no weather, no news feed, no links to sponsors, no ads, no distractions, no portal litter. Nothing but a fast-loading search site." Life comes at you fast.

You forgot to mention, but probably didnt know this: When various users on sites like Reddit found out that their platform went into contracts that would allow A.I. companies to use their site to train their models, the internet banded together to post as much disinformation as possible. As you can see on Google's page, it worked well.

"Asking Shaggy if he's cheating on you. " Instantly thought of Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated instead.

Babbel- an alternative to buying a slave to teach you Arabic

Not sure how much will RU-vid algorithm like this

So: in short, algorithms make poor librarians, and AIs make poor editors. That is because editors and librarians are humans who make ethical decisions that are partly based on empathy, their own experiences and their own habitus. They aren't perfect, but they are also embodied individuals living in a physical location. Grammarly is trying to tell me to reduce the length of the previous sentence. No. I write in long sentences. And it is good for people to read and decipher long sentences. Long sentences provide an impetus to ponder and spend time with a concept.

Why is everyone so stupid now? A: defunding of public education. the corporate ownership of news media.

Thanks for taking a critical look at how our reliance on search causes us to fall into misinformation traps

‘If we don’t like this we can ignore the stuff at the top’ Aw man the list of shit I have to ignore in a google search just to use it has grown longer then then my arm. It’s getting ridiculous.

The wall at Google doesn't even say "Don't Be Evil" anymore, they took it down.

Google is a classic example of: “you either die a hero or see yourself grow old enough to become the villain” It’s ironic and sad that Google’s motto is no longer: “Don’t be Evil”

The Google summary is wildly inaccurate and often contradicts itself in a single answer.

About 8 years ago a bunch of us went to the movies. We were hungery afterwards and they all went to their phones to look up mexican restaurants. We were standing within eye shot of 3 of them. I was dumbfounded.

I guess this explains why the answer was 42.

the alternative is reading books and lets be honest no one is doing that. if I want information I want it to be one sentence long. (2000's baby gen Z) When I was a kid, we always said "why bother reading or learning anything when google can do it for you" and well here we are. The schools kinda gave up on us and we gave up on learning and then we wonder why the newer generation is struggling with the basics. I hate that an entire generation has to be the downfall for us to learn how important knowledge is and how sacred information and teaching and learning is. our shoulders will be the ones our children stand on to see the stars and damn it I want my children to one day learn about them, not be the downfall of humanity.

welp perfect timing for my tech cage filled with depression

Italian here: pretty sure glue has always been the secret ingredient that makes Italian pizza in Italy so much tastier than the rest of the world. There goes our secret... thanks a lot Google!

I did get a bad feeling when they got rid of the "Don't be evil" sign...

Google searching today was really annoying with sponsored links, it only seems to get worse and worse this past couple years but accelerating in the last couple months. Watching old movies like Wanted and seeing the old search home page really brought back good memories when it used to be good.

One of the biggest issues I have now is that once I've looked up something, google acts like that things is all I'm interested in so I could but holiday destinations in scotland and then the next day when I look up anything else it will be all scottish version of it and I can't stop it even with incognito and when it's an actually product you looked up you are doomed because all it will be is that product.

Sometimes my tarot cards have been more interpretively predictive than google and don't take them seriously. Still look at google scholar.

Clicking through those terms and conditions turned out to be a Faustian nightmare.

The amount of pebbles and tide pods I've eaten coupled with all the coffee and crystals I've put in my butt says otherwise pal. Google is one of the last bastions of truth, and I'll be damned to an eternity of snorting lines of cinnamon while Rick Astley blares in the background before I let you besmirch their good holy name!

Personally I’d do Brussels sprouts at as hot as your oven will go.

This is a no shit kind of moment I think. the reality of infinite noise being the status quo for information exchange is that chronicling that information becomes really difficult. It kills websites like the wayback machine and others similarly interested in the written history of everything.

I miss using real maps on a road trip! Last year I started to force myself to not use GoogleMaps to navigate to places I’ve been before. My rule is I have to get lost before I turn on the nav again. My ability to navigate without tech is slowly returning lol

I find it funny that gemini "AI", proves itself to be pointless, as all you have to scroll to the first option that says exactly the same thing as the AI copied.

I generally just fell back into the old ways where, if you don't know something, you just wait until your friend's pothead college dropout cousin wanders in to offer an answer but instead rambles on until you just decided it's unknowable. Either that, or use kagi.

Trend: Some of us pointed to this (generally) years ago, peeps said “yes, worrying”. Now, same peeps say “nah, it’s ok, just enjoy…”. That trend is my primary social scare…😢

I agree with most of this. Letting AI do just about anything for us, let alone think or teach, is like following a headless giraffe walking backwards. I complained when I got the notice about AI overview before it rolled out because I knew what was going to happen. AI yet again showed its whole aspirin with how bad it is. That wasn't autocorrect. I just don't know how picky your comment filters are. But one thing I always see in videos like this that I don't agree with is the downplaying of the agency we have over the societies we've built. Setting aside outright errors, most of what we see is a reflection of ourselves. Not a product of someone else manufacturing an alternate reality that doesn't align with any of our thoughts and feelings. Even when acknowledging that something creates a "feedback loop", the start of that loop being us and our own biases, interests, and efforts is glossed over. "Google prioritizes large, well-connected websites". How did they become large and well-connected? The superficial, somewhat disingenuous answer is something bad capitalism. The more grounded answer is that we did it. We propped up these companies, these websites, these social transient fictions, with our business, our word of mouth, our personal contributions to media, and conversation. Then Google responded in kind, further perpetuating what we established. To say that it's done at the expense of counter-cultural or critical voices is to suggest that those things would be more socially prominent if not for those meddling Googles. While exposure matters, if those things were the prevailing norm as demonstrated by us, they wouldn't be deemed counter culture to begin with. Google does what we do. It reinforces what we reinforce. Most people are sheep. When left to their own devices, they don't actively seek out things that aren't mainstream or that don't conform to social mores unless it serves them personally. Rarely is it about knowledge for knowledge's sake. It's like people who complain about YT's algorithm always showing them the same big creators with the same content. Yet when they're recommended a video with 5 views from a channel with 10 subscribers, they don't click on it because they've never heard of that channel before. We fuel the flaws around us, and those who care enough about those flaws adjust to meet their needs. They skip what's recommended to manually browse instead because they know what's recommended isn't necessarily what's best for them. And they don't click on the first search result they see. They scroll until they find the first one they want. But they aren't the majority, and their habits aren't any less skewed towards fiction just because they're the least common anyway. The one thing I've heard over the past two decades from any and everyone I've come in contact with in any space, on or offline, is that they stick to Google because it's better. How? The results are more relevant to their search. Unlike books in a library, search engines are the epitome of seek and ye shall find, because the psychology behind their use isn't limited to looking up facts. A huge chunk of what's searched for is societal. People are googling ideas, concepts, customs, and trends to better understand what's happening around them culturally. What people mean, what people usually do, how people feel about stuff, and where they fit into it. Those things aren't exactly factual, and truth means something different in a social context than in a more scientific or objective one. It's true that there are 7 days in a week. Is it true that an underbite is ugly? That dude you mentioned was right. The reason people felt that Google results were more relevant or accurate is because it was better at "interpreting intentions". That's not a bug. It's a feature. If a girl googled how do I smell fresh, Google was better at understanding, based on all of the data it has access to, that she likely wasn't asking about laundry detergent. Even if the search results are problematic in the sense that they uphold established power dynamics, institutions, and ideals, the fact remains that users viewed those results as more relevant and therefore preferable. They sought and they found. If it wasn't serving up what users wanted hot and fresh on a plate before, you wouldn't have so many people noticing how much worse it is now. It's not giving people what they want anymore. It's throwing intentions out the window in favor of things like ads, or faux neutral responses that, by attempting to be neutral, render themselves useless to the average user. So it kinda rubs me the wrong way when I feel like that aspect of our relationship with technology is fanned away to focus more on how bad it is that technology reflects how bad we are. People click on negative auto-completes more often than positive ones? That sounds like an us problem. People also ignore the 500 nice things said about them to obsess over the 1 insult they got, and they click on videos with extreme or inflammatory takes in the title and thumb more than boring ol' reasonable content. We can and should criticize platforms and technology for feeding into our worst impulses for any reason, let alone profit. I just want us to acknowledge that those are, in fact, our impulses. Not their machinations. There's a difference between preserving our hellscape by giving us the tools to be as dumb as we are, and actively pushing certain ideas. If a platform shows more hateful content because that gets the most engagement, the conversation needs to start with why so many people are into that. If, however, the platform shows more hateful content despite most users not engaging with it or even actively disliking it, that's now a them problem. Not an us thing. Replace "hateful" with anything else and it remains true. But is that the complaint? No. And people love confirmation bias. Of course someone searching if the holocaust happened is more likely to be dipping their toes in the waters of denial. They aren't seeking knowledge. They're seeking validation. "I think something. Google, prove that I'm right." Will there unfortunately be some caught in the crossfire who legit don't know the answer and are swayed by the top result? Yes. But that again speaks to cultural influence, not just tech. Why are there still so many people who have to ask? Cuz we suck. Did Google "train us to trust its authority" enough to go with the first result? Or do so many people click on the first link because it's good enough for them and they don't feel like looking through more? If there's anything the internet has trained and beaten into us, it's instant gratification, quick reactions, and short attention spans. So much of what's wrong is a consequence of that, not just what we're served. Even now, I can hear the faint buzz of tldr, the folks who saw how long this comment is and thought ugh, one of those weirdos. Passively watching something for three hours requires less effort and focused comprehension than reading something that takes five minutes. Guess which one social media encourages? I'm on some counter culture shiz! Yes, we can blame ourselves for just trusting the first thing we see. And if it's an emergency, it doesn't matter where you get the info from. You're probably gonna go with it cuz you're about to die lol Some of this is extra fluff. Memory, like muscle, needs to be used to stay strong and improve, so relying on technology to remember things for you weakens your ability to recall things on your own. Google didn't invent that problem. It just made it ever present. It's still an us thing. Where I'm with you fully is on AI. No one should blindly trust information on the web, though everyone does to an extent based on how credible they think the source is. But when the source isn't a human whose credibility we can judge, and it gets even the most basic things wrong, the volcano isn't gurgling anymore. It's erupting. It takes the tendency to default to the first thing we see, or to assume that something is credible enough simply for being a search result, to a much scarier place where society and culture aren't the baselines for understanding anymore. It's borderline random words a machine spat out. One that will tell you to eat rocks with its whole chest. It's a nightmare, but AI turds everything it touches, and greedy "keep up with the Joneses" tech types along with lazy "it lets me do cool stuff without trying so consequences be damned" types are hellbent on being toilets, so here's to swimming in sh*t for the foreseeable future!

to me it was inevitable that we would have a flood of misinformation the moment it became easier for people to write and publish articles and papers. That's sort of the trade-off that you make in giving more people a voice.

Here before Google strikes down the video!

Welp, I've just been to google and I can confirm that (here in the UK at least) they are still doing predictive searches for the US candidates for president. Since we also have an election this year, I checked our own candidates and can confirm that they also have predictive searches available.

I didn't realize that unsolicited preaching is grounds for a stoning.... Interesting.

Searching on Google has definitely given me some form of memory lapse one time or another that it's scary, it's like going to your fridge and you forget immediately what you were looking for when you're hungry

While I've been more and more wary of the ads and sponsored content in Google's search results over the years, the AI nonsense was finally the push I needed to start using other search engines...though I'm not really sure which might be better. If any. Social media and the desire to collect data to sell targeted ads might just be the downfall of the civilized world.

Italian here, glue on pizza really works. I also use expanded polyurethane to make the crust softer. Also I'm definitely not a bot on youtube or something. I don't know, Google told me I might be one. Who am I to oppose common knowledge?

Not stupid. Just scared and paralyzed by useless information.

Michael: The key to speaking Danish is to sound like you are swallowing the words as you speak them. Like eating small rocks.

A google now ad while watching this video is chefs kiss.

I honestly can't google "paresthesia" together with a few other words, because it will instead look for "numbness", because that was, according to Google, my intention with that search.

I'm 63. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would drop me off at the library. I would be there all day. It was glorious. I miss it.

What's with the current trend of "release it now, make it good later"?

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There was an episode of The Daily Show during the subprime sh*tshow recession, he references an interview with some hedge fund manager or similar finance guy, IIRC, when asked if better regulation would've prevented the recession, & the guy's response was, "It's hard to keep moving the money around with regulators looking over your shoulder constantly," & Jon, with his signature exasperation, says _THAT'S KIND OF THE POINT!_ If something is not explicitly illegal, corporations will do whatever they want in the name of the almighty profit. Regulate the ever-livin snot out of them & get them in line, & if they cry about the cost, f*ck them because neither the government nor the American people _owe_ them profitability. Start with banning all forms of consumer surveillance, data collection, possession, application, distribution. No more.

Thank You for the very concise summation of what Wisecrack videos are largely about, love this and will use it: “When every mechanism of humanity from knowledge acquisition, to food consumption, to education, to housing is mediated by an economic system that is dehumanized and predicated on efficiency and profit alone, then maybe bad stuff happens.” “Just click that, that’s the gist of most all things.”

I like to exaggerate, so I won't. I watched this video like three hours ago, and already forgot what it was about what in the actual hell.

Google has slowly been getting worse and worse over the last 10-15 years.😢 Danish: Google er langsom blevet dårligere og dårligere over de sidste 10-15 år.🙁

Not me, i still buy encyclopedias 😂

Another industry that should just be a public service

Google : "A little evil is OK"

I don't know. The fact that people hold on to false info instead of using the "oracle of Delphi" that we all have in our pockets to fact check everything is worse than having our collective memory stunted.

Appreciate your content and delivery. Thanks

We never complained in the past that some of the search results were out to lunch because we should all know some websites are out to lunch and top results are not regularly what we wanted (i.e. only idiots used the "I'm feeling lucky" button). Google wants the AI to eventually do that for us. In reality even though we didnt want those results, it was sometimes interesting to know they existed, but also annoying (i.e. we wanted it to know what we wanted). Sometimes you dont get what you want but you get what you need. Seems they are continuously moving towards giving you what you want, but ironically the recent errors that got attention are examples of reminding you of the nonsense that is out there rather than giving you what you want.

Let’s not forget that Google has been working with the FBI and CIA and another government government agencies so not only get your data or what you may be saying about government and etc.. You gotta be very careful what you say about Google.

425 degrees?!?? No way my oven will go that high. (Units matter!!!)

I've recently started making myself remember things on my own when I'd google them normally. Its unnervingly tough to remember some things I thought I knew easily. I do know it, it just takes a while. I am getting better though, hopefully I'll catch up to kid me some day before age takes over

My parents need all the help they can get when it comes to internet safety. I’ve been relying on my visits to the library lately for most of information research.

Put down the phones and go back to the library!

That black star shirt looks so fucking tough😭

if we use a broad definition of rock we should eat some rocks but also what

Google analytics ad before this vid. lololol

Wisecrack makes my algorithm smarter!

Google said I could make up my own facts. 😛

Mos def & Talib Kweli’s Black Star on the shirt?? Love to see it

We might need to make jstor free to the public

Rad shirt man. I've always had the feeling that you've got great music taste.

You would have loved Aristotle 😹

Thanks for the reminder to change my standard search engine in my browser settings. I knew I forgot something!

We're very quickly getting to a point where the only place that we'll be able to get any reliable information IS the library. At least until we get to the point where people start printing books made by "AI".

"19th century philosophy Danish"...someone was reading that original Kierkegaard.

There's something I don't understand. Google weighing information based on what they deemed trusted was bad, but not filtering based on their opinion is also bad.

First. Because you asked, as an Italian, I say glue and pepples are NOT pizza toppings and their presence on pizza is an abomination subject to the third level of the second ring of the seventh circle of Hell. JUST LIKE, and LISTEN here, ALL chicken (BBQ, buffalo, breaded, grilled) and ALL pasta (but especially Penne, Ziti, and Rigatoni. But my main point, I LOVE that I got served an ad during this for an AI that specifically returns accurate health care and health science information!!! (I got the impression, like, for doctors, not your significant other freaking out because their big toe is twitching)

Without memory, the entirety of reality is undermined.

I feel that the AI is most correct about us eventually having to eat pizza with glue and pebbles.

I thougt it was refined sugar that broke our brain.

I think it comes back to the question: how much convenience should one person have. . I've seen it around my personal life of the phrase, "just Google it" comes into play because of how much good faith it garnered over the years. . In the end, moderation as we're more likely to remember a situation the longer and harder we take to solve it. . .

🙌Ed Zitron and Better Offline mentioned 🙌

So, that's where the idea for the Golden Compass comes from? Huh!

Me, watching YT from a Pixel phone: "Interesting."

That's some nice Danish, Micheal ;D Godt gået!

At least the glue in the Pizza is non toxic. AI overview cares about us😮

The thing with google and AI hallucination is that it's not a big deal... as long as you know absolutely nothing, feign ignorance of, and refuse to listen to the real life criticisms based on well established psychological discoveries and robustly tested theories regarding human behavior.

I've noticed that it gives a lot of redit and quora pages and I liked the overview, at first, but then I realized that most people aren't going to actually open a link to check on the information.

Can't the same thing be said of the jump from oral traditions to books, or the jump from manually solving math problems to calculators?

Davs Michael. Hvordan går det? Går det fint?

I'm torn because I Googled Google and Google says Google isn't suspicious.

Keep forgetting to sign up for that after work Dutch class? No problem, there's an app for that! 😂😂😂

nahh i changed my search engine to wikipedia a decade ago.

Comment on the ad feels of topic, and the topic is important, buuut It's always a treat as a swedish speaker to hear someone learning danish. Since they are almost always more coherent to me than an native danish speaker from one of the porrigier (dir. translate of "grötigare", what we use to describe, amongst other things, hard to understand, thick dialects.) danish dialects. Keep at it and I'm sure that one day, i will hardly understand you!

As a joke I told ChatGPT glue goes on pizza two days ago 😭😭 holy shit.

i came to the conclusion that it is too late for a bright future a while back, now i sit here like a sheeple getting nothing done while i watch the world burn, the signs are everywhere and i hate it.

That's why I consult books written before AI when I want to know something, and train my memory so I can build a knowledge and critical thinking base

If Google the company says that it's seatch engine is working fine after being told it favors SEO spam, then that means the company intentionally favors SEO spam.

as a person with good memory who hardly uses google yeah this whole video checks out

I find it valuable, in a way. It shows what searching the Internet as a person with no critical reasoning would be like.

100 billion. I can't even picture that much cash in my mind. just imagine what that could have done if it were donated to eliminate homelessness, or treat mental illness, or provide vocational training? but hey, at least i can enjoy my glue pizza.

A google commercial came on during this video. It really made me laugh.

Great video