Eye of the OM

Kevin Kelly asks about the scenarios in which the "unstoppable" Google would get sidelined.

I think, when we start saying,

"I will not search here or there.
I will not search anywhere.
I do not want the keys jam,
I do not like them, Sam-I-am."

Consider the following three trends:

1. Everything is not miscellaneous anymore!!

In the present time,David Weinberger is absolutely right. "Everything is miscellaneous",is the central reason, Google is what it is. Google gives me a list, which is devoid of context and I use my interpretation to choose a few and filter out the rest.

But,one day this 'contextlessness' is not cool anymore. When the digital forests of information is so massive and my needs of information consumption is richer and subtler, that I don't want to construct meaning,everytime I want some information. I give out so much information about myself to the internet, that you should construct the context and give me what I want with surgical precision.

2. I don't want and can't handle everybody!!

"Here comes everybody", warned Clay Shirky. Sure the "Numa Numa" dance was interesting. I could learn all about the Marzipan cake from Wikipedia. Google certainly disrupted, "Knowledge is Power".


But, one day, with the posterous of the world and the speech-to-text tools in the mobile, literally, everybody is providing me information and entertainment, real-time, with a range of usefulness (from great to junk),that my cognitive surplus is going down, day by day, with the million Gary wannabes. I demand that, somebody set the "Bozo bit" correctly, after 'knowing' who I am.


3. Fingers are not the window to the internet

As long as the keyboard is the only interface to the world, I could tolerate a list. Google is certainly my window to the brave new world.

But, one day, when my expectation increased from getting a list, by typing, to commanding the 'mobileputer', "This dude is using the term, non-linear strategic action. I want to understand where he got the term from and how relevant is this term to the current context.", just like I command my automobile to increase the fan speed.

Or I am watching a movie and Jack Nicholson drops the name of that expensive coffee and I slap my forhead and my mobile wakes up to give me, yes, indeed this is true, that such a coffee exists. I don't care about any other info., only what I want. Just find out what I want from who I am and my gesture. But, don't make me wear those weird-looking gadgets all over my body, like the Sci-fi movies.

So, when the three trends hit the tipping point, Personalized curation would not only be the only means of preserving the richness and diversity afforded by the Long Tail, but the only way, for me, to do a great number of cool things with this connected intelligence, without expending my precious attention.

If you think, this ain't gonna happen, reflect upon how much information your eye filters to get the information that you decide to place attention on.

Google,"the window to the internet", would be replaced by the "Eye of the OM". (OM=One Machine is Kevin Kelly's term). Personally, it is going to a be a great while for that to happen.