Category: google

Hacking climate change is more of a data challenge as we try and backtest and forecast our models. Unfortunately the science is hostage to the politics, but sharing data openly, including cutting edge results without worrying on ancient national interests would be the first step in a planet wide effort to save the planet.

From naming the algorithm after himself ( PageRank ?) to forsaking his professors at Stanford ( who legally own the rights to many intellectual property), to first learning under Eric Schmidt and then pushing him out on the pretense of a political appointment to never came, to the era of silent cooperation with the US Government, to collecting a lot of data by assessing the risk of litigation (especially mobile), and to push intellectual property rights between open source and patent rights, to massive expensive lobbying and now even sidelining his brother in arms- Larry Page has emerged as the most ruthless combination of business savvy and formidable technological skills since Bill Gates.

He now owns a representative sample of nearly all the data on video (Youtube) , email (Gmail), website analytics ( Google Analytics), search engine (Google.com), advertising clicks ( Adwords and Adsense), a majority of mobile phones (Android).

And he wants more. To collect data from your thermostat. Your glasses. His government will not file an anti trust case because of national security. As an extension of US foreign policy, he will lead protests against Chinese hackers, censorship and even abandon the market than comply with Chinese Law, but he will gladly pay fines and delete links to comply with European Law.

There are ways to make money that are not evil. But they do not teach what is evil or not, at Stanford. Not even to dropouts.

What is information asymmetry?

information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. This creates an imbalance of power in transactions which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry, a kind of market failure in the worst case. Examples of this problem are adverse selection,^[1] moral hazard, and information monopoly

Most commonly, information asymmetries are studied in the context of principal–agent problems. Information asymmetry causes misinforming and is essential in every communication process

Adverse selection, anti-selection, or negative selection  refers to a market process in which undesired results occur when buyers and sellers have asymmetric information (access to different information); the “bad” products or services are more likely to be selected.

The principal–agent problem or agency dilemma occurs when one person or entity (the “agent“) is able to make decisions that impact, or on behalf of, another person or entity: the “principal“. The dilemma exists because sometimes the agent is motivated to act in his own best interests rather than those of the principal.

Monopolies of knowledge arise when ruling classes maintain their political power through their control of key communications technologies.^[3] An example of this occurs in ancient Egypt where a complex writing system conferred a monopoly of knowledge on literate priests and scribes.

 

1. This especially is true in enterprise software
2. and online advertising and spam
3. and commodities across the globe (oil spikes after iraq, oil slumps after heating oil data, climate data, or even releases from strategic reservoirs)
4. and internet spying which may be for economic espionage or trade negotiations but are justified as looking for terrorists.
5. and inflation in the developing and poor countries
6. and lobbying in the developed and rich countries

People who enable information asymmetry are corrupted people, misled by their own greed and agent-employees in decisions that run counter to the principles when they founded their corporation.

Do you think information asymmetry is evil? Or do you think we should jump on the bandwagon and play the game. Click those ads, while we share your data with the government!