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Prophecy: From Google Glass to Microchip to Implant in your Brain (part 1)
Is Google planning a microchip for people's brains? Engineering boss at internet giant says sci-fi-style technology will begin by helping disabled people control wheelchairs
- Google faces major backlash over claims it colluded with U.S. authorities to open a 'back door' to users' personal information
- But it nevertheless intends to leverage the wealth of data it holds on people to offer them increasingly personalised search results
- The ultimate ambition is to get inside users' heads with microchips that will download search results straight into their brains
Just a stepping stone... A woman models Google Glass, which is being trialled across the U.S. Google hopes one day to use microchips in users' brains
Online advertising giant Google's new wearable accessories are merely a stepping stone to its ultimate ambition - a microchip which can be embedded in users' brains.
The company, which uses its search, email and other services to funnel personalised advertising to users, is currently trialling prototypes of its Glass device, which is worn like a pair of glasses.
But Google is staking its future on a new service which will use the information it holds on registered users to automatically predict their search needs and present them with the data they want.
The ultimate ambition is to literally get inside users' heads: using search queries to read their thoughts and then fulfilling their data needs by sending results directly to microchips implanted into people's brains.
Ben Gomes, Google's Vice-President of Search told The Independent that the sinister-sounding vision is far from a sci-fi fantasy and that research had already begun with such chips to help disabled people steer their wheelchairs.
'They are getting a few senses of direction with the wheelchair but getting from there to actual words is a long ways off,' he said.
'We have to do this in the brain a lot better to make that interaction possible. We have impatience for that to happen but the pieces of technology have to develop.'
But standing in the way of this ambition is a major civil liberties backlash over claims that Google has conspired with U.S. authorities to open a 'back door' to data it holds on its hundreds of millions of users, allowing spies to monitor their online activities.
The company, whose 'Don't be evil' motto has long attracted derision from privacy campaigners, is alleged to have allowed analysts from the National Security Agency to 'mine' the terabytes of personal information it holds.
In the so-called PRISM programme, revealed last month in a series of articles in The Guardian, Google and a host of other Silicon Valley firms are alleged to have colluded with the U.S. domestic intelligence agency.
As well as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, Skype, AOL, and Yahoo are alleged to have allowed agents access to their data to conduct surveillance on users without court orders.
Tainted by scandal: Google faces a civil liberties backlash over claims that it and other internet firms have conspired with U.S. authorities to give spies a 'back door' to data it holds on its hundreds of millions of usersAlthough strenuously denied by Google, the accusations contained in leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden have provoked a crisis of trust in the company, as web users look for ways to surf the internet without being tracked.
Nevertheless, Google sees its future in leveraging the the wealth of information it holds on its users to present them with ever more personalised
Ultimately, as Page and co-founder Sergey Brin have asserted, the goal is to insert a chip inside your head for the most effortless search engine imaginable. Some will find this prospect exciting. Others might want to call for Dick Tracy.
Is Google planning a microchip for people's brains? Engineering boss at internet giant says sci-fi-style technology will begin by helping disabled people control wheelchairs
readmore: | Inside Google HQ: What does the future hold for the company whose visionary plans include implanting a chip in our brains? | The micro chip that will save your memory: Scientists set to implant device to preserve experiences into BRAINS
The first stage of this new level of intimacy is Google Glass, which I am invited to trial as part of a briefing on the company's future plans.
The idea of Google Glass is that you can walk down busy streets receiving helpful facts – without needing to take your mobile phone from your pocket. It could end the urban hazard of pedestrians staring at their mobiles instead of looking where they're going.
Prophecy: From Google Glass to Microchip to Implant in your Brain (part 3)
Google's sinister glasses will turn the whole world into search giant's spies
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