{"id":13614,"date":"2013-09-28T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2013-09-28T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/?p=13614"},"modified":"2021-10-19T06:50:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T10:50:40","slug":"google-vs-death-has-google-finally-met-its-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/google-vs-death-has-google-finally-met-its-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Vs. Death: Has Google Finally Met Its Match?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google\u00a0announced<\/a> its plans to vanquish death and, oddly enough, not too many people were surprised. The company who has mastered the search algorithm, addressed Internet security and tackled world-wide connectivity seems unlimited in its potential. Google’s new, lofty goal was not just taken seriously but heralded by Time<\/a> magazine who both lauded and mocked the Internet Giant\u2019s new immortality reach:\u00a0\u201cLast week Apple announced a gold iPhone; what did you do this week, Google? Oh, we founded a company that might one day defeat death itself.\u201d \u00a0The announcement of Calico has been received with amusement<\/a> (of course),\u00a0sarcasm<\/a>, mockery<\/a> and\u00a0disbelief<\/a>, but surprise? Not so much.\u00a0Perhaps the only surprising thing about\u00a0Google\u2019s new enterprise is its name: Calico<\/a>. A tame name for a project designed to take on death.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s plan to vanquish death raises deep questions:<\/p>\n

Is solving death just a high class<\/a> issue? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly the only ones suggesting the possibility are the ultra-rich. And a case can be made that the ultra-rich have nothing left to obtain except immortality itself, which explains their fascination<\/a> with it. Escape from death is one of those rare things that money can’t buy.<\/p>\n

Will the solution, if it\u2019s possible, be for everyone? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Or will only the poor die in an immortality-optioned world?\u00a0The solution will likely be costly:\u00a0would only the rich be able to afford immortality?<\/p>\n

Is Google truly altruistic in its goal to conquer death?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle has helped found a company that will focus on life extension technologies, presumably because if you die, then you can’t click on ads,\u201d writes Jack Clark<\/a>. He may be right: Google has more to gain from people’s longevity<\/a> than from their demise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Has Google lost perspective? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The company has done great things – amazing things! – and always aims high, but is Calico a sign that Google has finally lost perspective? Disarming death is impossible and yet Google has the chutzpah to tackle it. Does this point to indefatiguable optimism or overconfident folly? Has the CEO of Google gone mad with power and ambition?<\/p>\n

How does data analysis<\/a> translate to death deterrent? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Google has been very tight-lipped<\/a> about the actual ways it hopes to tackle death. Larry Page explained that \u201c\u2026there\u2019s tremendous potential for technology more generally to improve people\u2019s lives\u201d but no one in the company has said how<\/a> exactly that technology will be used toward their goal(s). \u201cDon\u2019t be surprised if we invest in projects that seem strange or speculative compared with our existing Internet businesses,\u201d he cautions us.<\/p>\n

Does no one care about cancer anymore? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Page told Time<\/a>, “One of the things I thought was amazing is that if you solve cancer, you\u2019d add about three years to people\u2019s average life expectancy. We think of solving cancer as this huge thing that\u2019ll totally change the world. But when you really take a step back and look at it, yeah, there are many, many tragic cases of cancer, and it\u2019s very, very sad, but in the aggregate, it\u2019s not as big an advance as you might think.\u201d What Google has in mind is bigger than cancer, as cancer is only one means to the end.<\/p>\n

Has Google met its match?<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to human science and theory, conquering death is impossible. Google may be big, but is it bigger<\/a> than the impossible, bigger than death? Maybe Google’s goal is more along the lines of hyperbole than master of the impossible. Because “We’re going to help people stay healthy” doesn’t have the same media punch as “We’re going to solve death.” The hyperbole deflates when we listen to what Google is actually saying: Calico aims to add 10 to 20 years on to the average person’s life span. 10 to 20 years isn’t immortality, but it’s something that may be achievable. Vanquishing death? Not gonna happen. Investing to add an extra 10 to 20 years on your life? Google’s on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google\u00a0announced its plans to vanquish death and, oddly enough, not too many people were surprised. The company who has mastered the search algorithm, addressed Internet security and tackled world-wide connectivity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":13622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3558],"tags":[6871,4056,6877,6872,6107,130,6852,4395,6873,3585,6875,6878,2821,6874],"class_list":["post-13614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff","category-web-technology","tag-calico","tag-cancer","tag-data-analysis","tag-data-sets","tag-death","tag-google","tag-google-x-lab","tag-health","tag-immortality","tag-internet","tag-larry-page","tag-search-algorithms","tag-technology","tag-time-magazine"],"views":126,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}