Opinion: In today’s pages: what Google wants
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‘Silicon Valley old-timer’ Andrew Keen asks what Google wants from us:
On iGoogle, we all get to aggregate our lives, consciously or not, so artificially intelligent software can sort out our desires. It will piece together our recent blog posts, where we’ve been online, our e-commerce history and cultural interests. It will amass so much information about each of us that eventually it will be able to logically determine what we want to do tomorrow and what job we want.The real question, of course, is whether what Google wants is what we want too.
James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn of Williams College explain why Bush is the anti-FDR. Columnist Patt Morrison parses missing people statistics and sets the ‘Captivity’ marketing campaign straight. And Altagracia Perez and Raphael J. Sonenshein explain why limits aren’t the way to fix L.A.’s neighborhood council system.
The editorial board reminds Democrats of their promise to disclose earmark sponsors, and applauds the FCC for opening up some spectrum to a variety of uses. And, having put P.E. safely behind them, the board wants stricter physical fitness programs for California kids.
Letter writers disagree with UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau’s support for the DREAM Act. Long Beach’s Dan Halderman asks a broader question: ‘Birgeneau laments that without $25,000 a year in aid, a student will never be able to attend UC Berkeley. Why does UC Berkeley cost so much?’