A scary Google scenario (JavaOne)

Cyberspace is a strange parallel universe, next to the physical world, and over time the two will merge, Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future argued this morning at JavaOne in San Francisco.

But that could be bad news:

"One fear I have: I think Google has way too much money.

The frightning thing about that is… they have indexed cyberspace. What are they going to do next? They are going to keep going, but where are they going to get the money. There is only one option: you've got to index the physical world. They of course started with the announcement of [Google Earth].

Here is my big nightmare: I'll be working in my home office. I hear the dog door switch and think: 'Well that's odd, the dog isn't here today.' I'll go back to work and the next thing I notice is a little robot rolling around taking pictures and everything in my home office.
And I say: 'Who are you?'
And it says: 'I'm Google Bot.'

[laughter]

You laugh, but the problem is, the entire contents of my home office will be on the web and I have no more privacy. But at least I know where to go the next time I lose my car keys."

Paul Saffo

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Tags: Google, JavaOne