Google has created a truly creepy video that could easily have appeared on Netflix as part of the Black Mirror Show. It tells about a future in which the history of our user data could be changed in order to influence human behavior.
The video was published thanks to The Verge. Its creator is Nick Foster, Head of Design, Research and Development, Google X. This work dates back to 2016.
Building on the theory of evolution and referring to Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Foster suggested thinking of the ever-evolving library of online human records, which he called The Selfish Book. According to him, in the future, all this data can be used not only to predict our behavior, but also to guide it to the desired result.
Western colleagues have already contacted Google and demanded to comment on the video. The company said the video was designed to be provocative and has nothing to do with Google's projects currently in development.
We understand that this is alarming - it should be so. It was a thought experiment by a development team assembled a few years ago that uses a technique known as "speculative design" to explore awkward ideas and concepts and try to provoke discussion and debate. All of this is not related to any current or future products.
